The season of Septuagesima is the preparation for the season of Lent.
Sunday, Feb 1: Septuagesima Sunday
Sunday, Feb 8: Sexagesima Sunday
Sunday, Feb 15: Quinquagesima Sunday
The Easter Cycle cycle celebrates the mystery of the Redemption and has the following subdivisions: Season of Lent, Eastertide, and After Pentecost.
During the Period from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the liturgy speaks no more of our greatness but contemplates the misery of fallen humanity, the fatal consequences of original sin and actual sin, and the sacrifice that God asked form the faithful Melchisedech, symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus brings for the whole of humanity.
We prepare for the fasting and penance for the season of lent. Our souls are slaves of the devil, the flesh, and the world.
Jesus came into the world, not to be crowned king of the Jews, but to deliver us from this threefold bondage and to restore to us the divine life which we had lost.
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Current Practice
Begins on one’s 14th birthday
Ash Wednesday and Fridays of Lent
Obliges abstention from fleshmeat
The Discipline of 1962
Applies on one’s 7th birthday
Complete Abstinence: all Fridays of the year, Ash Wednesday, Holy Saturday, and the Vigil of Christmas
Partial Abstinence (meat and soup or gravy made from meat permitted once a day at the principal meal): all the days of Lent, the Ember Days of Wednesday and Saturday, and the Vigils of Pentecost and the Assumption
Abstinence from meat is dispensed on Holy Days of Obligation
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Current Practice
Applies to everyone aged 18 to 59, inclusive.
One full meal permitted and two other meals may be taken which, when combined, are less than a full meal
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
The obligation to do penance is lifted on Fridays that are also celebrated as a solemnity.
The Discipline of 1962
Applies for those aged 21 to 59, inclusive.
Days of Lent from Ash Wednesday inclusive, Ember Days, and Vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, and the Assumption.
One full meal permitted and two other meals may be taken which, when combined, are less than a full meal.
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Current Practice
Applies to all the Faithful
Lent and Fridays outside of Lent
Marian Antiphon for Lent
Ave Regina Caelorum
Hail, O Queen of Heaven.
Hail, O Lady of Angels
Hail! thou root, hail! thou gate
From whom unto the world a light has arisen:
Rejoice, O glorious Virgin,
Lovely beyond all others,
Farewell, most beautiful maiden,
And pray for us to Christ.
Ave, Regina caelorum,
Ave, Domina Angelorum:
Salve, radix, salve, porta
Ex qua mundo lux est orta:
Gaude, Virgo gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa,
Vale, o valde decora,
Et pro nobis Christum exora