In the post-Conciliar, Novus Ordo calendar of Paul VI there is no more pre-Lent. This, like the Octave of Pentecost, was a great loss. It was not, as the Council’s document on the liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium required, a change that was either organic, developing from previous practice, or for the benefit of the people.
However, we are grateful that, with Benedict XVI’s 2007 gift of the document Summorum Pontificum, the pre-Lent Sundays are regaining something of their ancient status. Those who opt to follow the older, traditional calendar are given the advantage of pre-Lent. Moreover, Pope Benedict also gave us a great gift in the document Anglicanorum coetibus, for the welcoming of Anglicans into the Church and for the erection of their three Ordinariates, now in England, the United States and Australia. Their calendar, although based on the calendar of Paul VI, restored Septuagesima and pre-Lent along with the Ember Days, Rogation Days, and the Pentecost Octave. Both Summorum and Anglicanorum provide fuel for “mutual enrichment” and a deepening of our sacred worship practices and identity.
In practical terms, pre-Lent gives us a change to “ease in” to our Lenten discipline. The important season starts us to thinking about what we going to do during Lent well before Lent and not the day after Ash Wednesday. We might think of pre-Lent as a time to map out what Lent’s journey is going to look like. That way, when Ash Wednesday rolls around, we are ready, with a plan in hand. we can hit the ground running.
