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The three Sundays prior to Ash Wednesday are not ten days apart (that would indeed be quite miraculous), but nevertheless tradition gives these three "Gesima Sundays" the prefixes of Septua (70), Sexa (60), and Quinqua (50) as a countdown toward Lent. Quinquagesima is indeed 50 days before Easter, but Sexagesima and Septua aren't quite 60 and 70. Lent itself is that 40 day period (excluding Sundays, which traditionally are not penitential) from Ash Wednesday to the Great Vigil on Holy Saturday. /p>
In 2012, Septuagesima fell on the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany. In 2011, Septuagesima fell on the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. How can this be?
Epiphany is always on January 6, beginning immediately after the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 through January 5). We then have a period of "Sundays after Epiphany." However, the number of these Sundays after Epiphany varies because, beginning with Ash Wednesday, the church calendar switches over to its paschal cycle, which is determined not by fixed calendar dates (such as December 25, January 6 and February 2), but rather by the movable date of Easter, which the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 established as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox. The date of Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. That's quite a wide range.
Therefore, the "Sundays after the Epiphany" also have a wide range, because they have to fill the gap between the fixed date of Epiphany (January 6) through to the moveable date of Ash Wednesday (always 40 days before Easter, excluding Sundays). Sometimes there are only five Sundays after the Epiphany; sometimes there are nine. However many there are, the last three are always the gesima Sundays.
So now you know why the church has historically utilized the gesima system. The gesima weeks help the faithful to transition from a fixed cycle to a paschal cycle. As soon as you see the gesima Sundays appear on the calendar, you know that Ash Wednesday, and therefore Lent, is close at hand.
[post_title] => Sexagesima [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => sexagesima [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2024-09-28 13:21:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-09-28 17:21:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://saintthomasch1.wpenginepowered.com/?post_type=liturgical_date&p=353577 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => liturgical_date [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [priority] => 1 ) )Included in worship this morning are hymns sung by the congregation and choir, additional music sung exclusively by the choir, lessons, prayers, a sermon, and a Rite I Mass. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion.
This week the service begins with Choral Mattins, which occurs three times a year at the 11am service. Mattins allows us to offer some extraordinary works of the Anglican choral tradition that our choir normally does not have the opportunity to sing. If you are unfamiliar with Mattins, you are encourged to look at the leaflet and service card posted below. 
‚ñ∫The Senior Boys of the Choir have been invited to sing in Dresden, Germany on February 13 & 14, and are away February 8 through 15. They sing in collaboration with St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London and the Dresden Staatskapelle in the first performances of Dresden Requiem by Lera Auerbach.
Tobias Niederschlag writes, “the concert in Dresden resembles Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem of 1962, where similar artists were chosen to underline the reconciliation of nations which were at enmity during the war. In contrast to Britten, the score of the Dresden Requiem only includes male singing voices. ” Read more about the performances here.
Because of the Dresden trip, today’s choral services are sung by the Junior Choristers alongside the Gentlemen of the Choir.
Music Notes: Composed in 1964, Richard Felciano’s Communion Service draws inspiration from ‚Äúthe physical world and the context it provides for its inhabitants.‚Äù Scored for two-part chorus and organ, the vocal lines are imitative and concise. The Benedictus is lyrically set for trebles only over an angular organ accompaniment.
