Prepping for Lent: Pancakes and Confession

Anna Mitchell and I decided to delay our discussion of Blessed John Henry Newman, scheduled for Monday, March 4, for a week so that we could talk about Shrovetide and Pancakes instead. Listen live about 7:50 a.m. Eastern time/6:50 a.m. Central time here--the interview will be repeated during the national EWTN hour (sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. Eastern/5:00 and 6:00 a.m. Central) on Tuesday, March 5.

We'll talk about Blessed John Henry Newman on Conscience and Authority on Monday, March 11 and continue that series through October this year.

Ash Wednesday is on March 6; Easter will be on April 21 (my late mother's birthday). The Orthodox Church will celebrate Easter on April 28 this year.

Sunday, March 3 is Quinquagesima Sunday on the 1962 Roman Rite and the Anglican Ordinariate calendars: the pre-Lenten Season of Septuagesima is nearly over. As I explained it in a blog post for the National Catholic Register last year:

Before the reform of the liturgical calendar in late 1960’s, there was a name for this transitional time: Septuagesima. For three Sundays, the Church adopted a pre-Lenten period and in parishes where the Extraordinary Form is celebrated today, those Sundays are observed. The priest wears violet vestments, the Gloria is omitted, and the Tract replaces the Alleluia before the Gospel. The loss of the Alleluia, as the liturgical scholar Dom Gueranger explains, reminds us of our situation: “During the rest of the year [the Church] loves to hear us chant the song of heaven, the sweet Alleluia; but now, she bids us close our lips to this word of joy, because we are in Babylon . . . We are sinners, and have but too often held fellowship with the world of God's enemies; let us become purified by repentance . . .” . . .

The Latin names for these Sundays [Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima] refer to the approximate number of days until Easter: seventy, sixty, and fifty. These Sunday liturgies are solemn, even when the Mass is sung, because the readings emphasize that like the Israelites in Babylon, we are in exile from our true country, Heaven.

What does that have to do with pancakes and confession? As part of our preparation for Lent, including our plans for devotions, spiritual reading, corporal works of mercy, fasting and abstinence, we are thinking of both spiritual and practical matters. Our menus will change: no meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday in Lent; fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics are weaning themselves away from meat and cheese during their preparation for Great Lent: Meatfare and then Cheesefare Sunday, eliminating not just meat flesh but all animal products from their diets, including milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. No macaroni and cheese on Friday for them!

If we are preparing ourselves for what we need to give up for Lent so that we make progress in the spiritual life, we need to examine our consciences and confess our sins so we may focus on repentance and conversion.

So on Monday, March 4, we'll talk about how Shrovetide helped English Catholics before the Reformation prepare practically and spiritually for Lent.