Every year, at some point roughly midway between Christmas and Easter, we find the Sundays in our Book of Common Prayer designated by those big “Gesima” words — Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. Originally there was also a Quadragesima Sunday but that is now called the First Sunday in Lent.

Those designations are quite different in character from the names of most special Holy Days. Christmas, Good Friday, Ascension, and Transfiguration — all these have reference to some special religious event. Beginning with Septuagesima Sunday, they mark the Sundays which are seventy, sixty, and fifty, days before Easter. Quinquagesima Sunday is exactly fifty days before Easter; all the others are approximations, actually a few days off by the secular calendar.

So, why are these days important? They are important because they remind us that Easter approaches and that the Lenten Season of penitence, review and preparation for the Resurrection, the event that marks the gift of eternal life, are close upon us. The “Gesima” Sundays mark a kind of Pre-Lenten season, a forward extension of Lent itself. These Sundays mark a divide between the joys and thankfulness of Christmas and Epiphany and the introspection of Lent, to be followed by the greatest joy of all at Easter.

Beginning with Septuagesima Sunday, we are reminded that the joy of our Lord’s birth at Christmas and His being shown forth to the Gentiles at Epiphany is beginning to wind down, to be put behind us, as we contemplate the sorrows of our Lord’s coming Passion and Crucifixion and as we try to prepare ourselves for the greatest gift and miracle of the Resurrection, the conquest of death. It is in this sense of subdued preparation for self-examination during Lent, that the “Gesima” Sundays are traditionally marked in Anglicanism by the omission of the glad phrases and strains of the Gloria in Excelsis. The origin of the observance of these Sundays is somewhat obscure, but is at least as ancient as the latter part of the seventh century.

The Collects for Septuagesima and Sexagesima are the ancient ones, slightly modified. They are somber Collects, with references to punishment for our sins and petitions for merciful deliverance from adversity. These Collects seem to reflect in part the temper of the times in which they were originally composed, times of barbarian invasion, of famine, war and pestilence. After thirteen hundred years, these dangers, or kindred ones, are very much present with us, weighing upon our spirits.

Self-examination, repentance, turning to God for forgiveness and salvation — these are the meanings of the three “Gesima” Sundays preceding Lent. Seventy, sixty, and fifty, days until Man’s Salvation conquers death and rises into life everlasting. –The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen

Liturgical Day:  February 24

In the nine days of waiting between Jesus’ Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, the disciples remained together in prayer.  During this time, Peter reminded them that the defection and death of Judas had left the fellowship of the Twelve with a vacancy.

The Acts of the Apostles records Peter’s proposal that “of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of them must be ordained to be a witness with us to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).  Two men were nominated, Joseph called Barsabas who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.  After prayer, the disciples cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias, who was then enrolled with the eleven.

Nothing further is told of Matthias after his selection.  According to tradition he was an exemplary Apostle, but we know nothing more.  Matthias seems an appropriate example to Christians of one whose faithful companionship with Jesus qualifies him to be a suitable witness to the resurrection, and whose service is unheralded and unsung. –Lesser Feasts and Fasts

O Almighty God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being always preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen. –The Collect for St. Matthias the Apostle (Book of Common Prayer, page 233)

Looking for grace to say before a meal? How about one of these short prayers from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer…

BLESS, O Father, thy gifts to our use and us to thy service; for Christ’s sake. Amen.

- or -

GIVE us grateful hearts, our Father, for all thy mercies, and make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Like the King James Version of the Bible, Today’s 1928 Prayer Book Sets the Standard

For more than four-and-a-half centuries, the traditional Book of Common Prayer (BCP) has been the standard of worship for Anglicans worldwide. One by one, ill-conceived revisions of this great text have been measured against it and have come up short. In England, and elsewhere throughout the Anglican Communion, the 1662 BCP is the traditional edition, as is our similar 1928 BCP in America.

This Friday, January 21, we celebrate the day that Parliament enacted the Act of Uniformity of Edward VI, making Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer the official order of worship in the Church of England.

Over the centuries, minor revisions have been made, but the language has varied only slightly; the core doctrine not at all. The most recent of the scripture-based classic Prayer Books, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, stands alone in the American church as the true descendant of Cranmer’s original book. There is no comparison between the elegant, reverent, cadenced language of the 1928 BCP and the dissonant, weakened language of the imitations. With each change, truth and doctrine, along with the beauty of the English language at its best, erode incrementally.

We at Mariners’ Church of Detroit, with members of many different Christian faiths, continue to use the 1928 BCP – and the King James Version of the Holy Bible – exclusively in our worship.

Come and join us this Sunday morning as we worship the Lord “in the beauty of holiness.”

“O Most merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.” (Thanksgiving Collect from the 1928 BCP, p. 265)

Please note that the church office will be closed this Thursday and Friday, and that there will be no 12:10 pm service on Thursday.