Why We Need Septuagesima
For Catholics who follow the traditional calendar, today marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Septuagesima. As noted by Dom Gaspar Lefebvre in the St. Andrew Daily Missal:
The Church, manifesting the divinity of Christ throughout the first part of the Ecclesiastical year, shows us in the second part what Our Lord has done to merit it for us and communicate it to us…
The Septuagesima season always begins with the ninth week before Easter and includes three Sundays called respectively Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. These names…denote a series of decades working back from the commencement of Lent, which is known in Latin as Quadragesima.
In all of her liturgical wisdom Holy Mother Church has traditionally given the faithful this brief season as a prelude to Lent. Dom Lefebvre calls it a “prelude for the soul” which must transition from the joys of Christmas to the “stern penance” of the sacred forty days.
Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass now see the priest don violet colored vestments in recognition of this time. In addition, the Alleluia and the Gloria are dropped from the Mass as the liturgy further prepares us for Lent.
Unfortunately, this season was abolished following Vatican 2 and is not found on the new calendar or within the Novus Ordo Mass of Paul VI. A season which dates back to at least the sixth century and the papacy of Saint Gregory the Great has disappeared for the vast majority of Catholics thanks to a small group of “reformers” led by Annibale Bugnini.
Thankfully, as more are introduced to the Traditional Mass of the Roman Rite, the brief season of Septuagesima is being reintroduced into the life of the Church. As this means more of the faithful can better prepare for, and enter deeper into, the season of Lent, it is an objectively positive development.
Take a few minutes to enjoy the video below courtesy of the Latin Mass Society and its chairman Dr. Joseph Shaw. As always, Dr. Shaw and his team educate us on the richness of our Catholic faith, while reminding us why we need this traditional season.
And may you have a truly fruitful Septuagesima.
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Posted on February 12, 2017, in liturgy and tagged Annibale Bugnini, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, Joseph Shaw, lent, penitential season, Septuagesima, st andrew daily missal. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
liturgy guy 
Thank you. Oh! What a loss we have had to endure in losing the Mass of the ages!
We haven’t lost it. In fact many have found it in recent years. Pray that even more discover it and once again it becomes the Mass of the Roman Rite for ALL!
I have found Dom Guerangner’s “Liturgical Year” indispensable to understanding the reasons for the many seasons, octaves, and feasts that were removed by the reformers. It is to weep when one realizes what has been taken away from us. Still, a revival is upon us in these dark times!
“Archbishop Bugnini was a consultant in the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, and in the Sacred Congregation of Holy Rites. He was also the chairman of the Concilium which drafted the Novus Ordo Missae. Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was a freemason, initiated into the Masonic Lodge on April 23, 1963 (Masonic Register of Italy dated 1976). Monsignor Bugnini was removed from his office in the Vatican when it became public that he was a Mason.” (Most Asked Questions About The Society Of Saint Pius X (Angelus Press, 2918 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO), p. 26.)
“To fight against papacy is a social necessity and constitutes the constant duty of freemasonry.” (Masonic International Congress held in Brussels 1904, page 132 of the report)
Pope Leo XIII: “Let us, therefore, expose Freemasonry as the enemy of God, of the Church and of our Motherland.” (Letter to the Italian people, December 8, 1892)
Leo XII: “They have exposed their contempt for authority, their hatred of Sovereignty, their attacks against the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the very existence of God: They openly vaunt their materialism as well as their codes and statutes which explain their plans and efforts in order to overthrow the legitimate Heads of State and completely destroy the Church.” (Encyclical, Quo Graviora)
Agreed!
https://amywelborn.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/septuagisima/
Well done!
Here is a printable Alleluia for those desiring to bury their own. http://joyfilledfamily.com/2018/01/septuagesima-sunday-bury-the-alleluia.html