At the Vatican Press Office today, Archbishop Claudio Celli’s inaugural press conference was followed by an informal rinfresco — pizza and spumante. The archbishop had one slice, but some of the journalists made lunch of it.Posted on 01/29/2008 1:55:35 PM PST by NYer
At the Vatican Press Office today, Archbishop Claudio Celli’s inaugural press conference was followed by an informal rinfresco — pizza and spumante. The archbishop had one slice, but some of the journalists made lunch of it.
The dessert tray held those pre-Lenten Italian favorites: frappe, a sweet fried flat pastry, and castagnole, fried and sugared dough balls. As they quickly disappeared, someone remarked that we’d better enjoy them now because Ash Wednesday was less than two weeks away.
Is that possible?
Yes. Lent begins on Feb. 6, and Easter is March 23. That’s the earliest Easter since 1913, when it fell on the same date.
In 1913, however, Ash Wednesday came on Feb. 5, a day earlier than this year.
Is that possible?
Yes, because 2008 is a leap year, thus adding an extra day in the middle of the Lenten season.
The earliest Ash Wednesday possible is Feb. 4, and the earliest Easter is March 22. That last happened in 1818.
The fact that Easter is a moveable feast confuses many people, even in Rome. So is the fact that Catholics and Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter on different dates, because they follow different calendars. This year, for example, the Orthodox celebrate Easter on April 27 — more than a month after Catholics.
It’s not easy to explain in a sentence or two, but here’s how the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” puts it:
At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of the different methods of calculating the 14th day of the month of Nisan, the date of Easter in the Western and Eastern churches is not always the same. For this reason, the churches are currently seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord’s Resurrection on a common date.
Catholic and Orthodox leaders actually sat down several times in the late 1990s to try and resolve the problem of different Easter celebrations, but didn’t come up with an answer. At that time, the Vatican made it clear that the Catholic Church, following the lead of the Second Vatican Council, could accept the assigning of Easter to a specific Sunday agreed upon with other Christian churches.
One proposal was to celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the second Saturday in April. That sounded do-able. But, perhaps because old traditions die hard, it hasn’t happened yet.
PHOTO: Shown is some of the frappe and castagnole served up at a Vatican press conference Jan. 24. (John Thavis)
Now if someone can explain how the 40 days of Lent are calculated so that in the east we celebrate Ash Monday while the Latin Church celebrates Ash Wednesday, I would be most appreciative. In the meantime, I’d better pack up the last vestiges of Christmas this weekend ;-)
I keep a small Nativity out all year long. I like it.
Are Good Friday and Holy Saturday not counted as Lenten days?
LOL! In the Byzantine Rite, last Sunday was “Meatfare Sunday,” and next Sunday, Feb. 3, is called “Cheesefare.” Monday will be called “First Monday of Great Fast,” which will be a day of strict fast and abstinence, meaning no meat, eggs, dairy, (even fake), or cheese. From then until Easter, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be days of abstinence from meat. (Except for Good Friday, which will follow the same rules as First Monday.) Crystal clear, huh?
Ash Monday?
Great Lent starts this year on March 10th. Great and Holy Pascha is, as the article notes, April 27th. What all of this Latin Church calculating means is that St. Patrick’s Day falls in Holy Week (unless of course the powers that be change the date), your Easter lilies will be very expensive as will your lamb, which will be too small to feed very many people so you’ll need to buy two. Better you should just celebrate Pascha with us! :)
Easter has not fallen on the earliest of the 35 possible dates, March 22, since 1818, and will not do so again until 2285. It will, however, fall on March 23 in 2008, but will not do so again until 2160.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
For Catholic Lent, Sundays don’t count. So it’s 36 days from 6 weeks, each with 6 days (Monday through Saturday, including the week with Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter), plus 4 days from Wednesday through Saturday of the week with Ash Wednesday; 40 days in total.
“LOL! In the Byzantine Rite, last Sunday was “Meatfare Sunday,” and next Sunday, Feb. 3, is called “Cheesefare.” Monday will be called “First Monday of Great Fast,” which will be a day of strict fast and abstinence, meaning no meat, eggs, dairy, (even fake), or cheese. From then until Easter, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be days of abstinence from meat. (Except for Good Friday, which will follow the same rules as First Monday.)”
I didn’t realize you guys celebrated with the Latins, Red. Learn something new everyday, I guess.
Thanks for the reminder!
If you're completely out of touch with the paschal origin and meaning of Easter.
old traditions die hard,...
Which hasn't stopped assorted knuckleheads from doing their best to kill them.
Me too! (Did you get my pings? Very important ones!)
Good Friday is definitely counted as a Lenten day in the east; not sure of Holy Saturday. That's a good thought though. Perhaps someone else will post a more claritive response.
Now that is a truly serious approach to Lent! I believe the Orthodox give it all up (meat and dairy) throughout all of Lent. Kolo?
“Now that is a truly serious approach to Lent! I believe the Orthodox give it all up (meat and dairy) throughout all of Lent. Kolo?”
Indeed we do, which of course makes all of us Orthodoxers feel sooooo holy! :) We even give up wine except on Saturdays and no fish with a backbone except on a few days, Basically we eat vegetables and shellfish.
Actually, its a wonderfully spiritual expercise. Just like the Fathers tell us, by fasting we do grow in our Faith and we do die, at least a little bit, to the self. As the years have passed, most of us tend to look forward to Great Lent, even the fasting, as its a time when even though we are in “the World”, in our communities and for parts of every day, we live and pray in “the Desert”. And of course it all prepares us for and leads us to the indescribable joy of the Anastasis.
Yah'shua's Passover is Saturday Evening April 19, 2008.
Good question! In researching it, I stumbled upon EWTN's lengthy response, posted below, that also explains the calculation of days in the east and west. Thank you , Mother Angelica!
Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: What determines what day Lent begins? P.R., Fresno, California
A: The short answer to your question is that the beginning of Lent depends on the date of Easter.
Easter follows a lunar, rather than a solar, calendar and is celebrated on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after March 21, the vernal (spring) equinox. Therefore Easter cannot fall earlier than March 22 or later than April 25.
All the other movable celebrations in the Church calendar ultimately depend on the date of Easter.
Most of the Eastern Churches follow the same basic principles but often celebrate Easter on a date different from Catholics and other Western Christians because they continue to follow the calendar of Julius Caesar without the corrections incorporated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
Julius Caesar's calendar calculated the year as 365 days and 6 hours and thus was about 11 minutes and 9 seconds more than the sun's actual course. Although tiny, this excess puts the calendar off by a day, more or less, every 128 years. Thus, the Council of Nicaea already found it necessary to regress the date of the spring equinox to March 21 instead of the original date of March 25.
By the time of Pope Gregory XIII the difference had grown so much that the spring equinox occurred on March 11.
In 1581 with the bull "Inter Gravissimas" Pope Gregory promulgated a widespread reform which, among other things, re-established the spring equinox on March 21 by eliminating 10 days from October 1582. Coincidence would have it that St. Teresa of Avila died on that very night of Oct. 4-15.
The error of Julius Caesar's calendar was corrected by deciding that the turn of the century — always a leap year in the Julian calendar — would be so only when the year could be divided by 400, that is 1600, 2000 2400 2800, etc., whereas there would be no leap year in the others.
Most Catholic countries, and even some Protestant ones, accepted the reform almost immediately. Some countries, such as England, held off accepting the papal reform until 1752 while Russia did not adopt it until after the Communist takeover in 1918.
The calculation is still not perfect as there is still a difference of 24 seconds between the legal and the solar calendar. However, 3,500 years will have to pass before another day is added.
Getting back to Lent. This season comprises 40 days before Easter without counting Sundays which, even though they are called "Sundays of Lent," are not days of penance. Church tradition has always excluded fasting and penance on a Sunday.
The tradition of a fast in preparation for Easter goes back to the late third century but it varied in duration. The tradition of a 40-day fast was established in Rome between 354 and 384, although it began after the first Sunday.
As this period was also deemed suitable for the final preparation of candidates for baptism, the baptismal scrutinies were incorporated with the rites of this season. Scrutinies are communal prayers celebrated around the elect to strengthen them to overcome the power of sin in their lives and to grow in virtue.
Later, at the start of the sixth century, the beginning of Lent was moved up to Ash Wednesday in order to guarantee 40 days of effective fasting.
* * *
Follow-up: Picking the Day Lent Begins [3-14-2006]
Several readers asked for clarifications regarding the start of the Lenten season (Feb. 28) while one or two apparently misunderstood the point I was making.
Some followed my statement that "Most of the Eastern Churches follow the same basic principles but often celebrate Easter on a date different from Catholics and other Western Christians ...," by pointing out that "the 21 Eastern Churches do not have 'Ash Wednesday.' This is a peculiarity of the Western Church. Lent begins on the Monday before that event."
It is true that Eastern Churches begin Lent on the Monday before Ash Wednesday. My reference to the "same basic principles" regarded the system for calculating Easter Sunday, not the beginning of Lent.
Several other readers questioned the duration of the Lenten season.
One wrote: "It is clear that, with the liturgical reforms, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday evening. The triduum is not a part of Lent; thus Lent extends for a total of 44 days. If you take out the Sundays, you're left with 38 days, not 40. (You'd have to extend Lent into the triduum, as in the former calendar, to make it 40.) The 1988 circular letter of the CDW [Congregation for Divine Worship], 'Preparing and Celebrating the Paschal Feasts,' says, 'The first Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of the annual Lenten observance' (No. 23). If the First Sunday of Lent is part of the 'Lenten observance' (indeed, its beginning) why not the other Sundays? In fact, to get to 40 penitential days you simply have to count Sundays (they are Sundays 'of' Lent, despite what you wrote). But you don't begin on Ash Wednesday, but on the First Sunday of Lent when the catechumens become the elect."
A few lines earlier than those quoted by our interlocutor the same circular letter states: "On the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, the faithful receive the ashes, thus entering into the time established for the purification of their souls" (No. 21).
In No. 16 it also clarifies: "All Lenten observances should be of such a nature that they also witness to the life of the local Church and foster it. The Roman tradition of the 'stational' churches can be recommended as a model for gathering the faithful in one place. In this way the faithful can assemble in larger numbers, especially under the leadership of the bishop of the diocese, or at the tombs of the saints, or in the principal churches of the city or sanctuaries, or some place of pilgrimage which has a special significance for the diocese."
I think, therefore, that by saying that Lenten observances begin on the First Sunday of Lent, the document was making a practical pastoral suggestion and did not intend to establish a new beginning for Lent. Still, there is some solid historical evidence for the custom of counting the 40 days from the First Sunday of Lent.
The problem might be solved by distinguishing between the liturgical season of Lent and the 40 penitential days.
As our reader, and the missal, point out, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends when the Easter triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
This season includes the Sundays of Lent and thus extends for a total of 44 days.
If however, we take into account the number of days when fasting and/or abstinence is either recommended or obligatory before Easter, then Good Friday and Holy Saturday are also included, but the Sundays are not. We are then left with 40 fast or penitential days between Ash Wednesday and the Easter Vigil.
The absence of fasting on Lenten Sundays does not mean that these days are devoid of all penitential meaning. The liturgy itself expresses this reality by use of violet, the absence of flowers, the omission of the Alleluia and Gloria, and the overall tone of the liturgical texts.
As we saw earlier, the practice of Eastern Churches differs somewhat. Their period of abstinence and fast begins on the Monday preceding our Ash Wednesday and continues for 40 days straight. The following seven days are a special period that includes a more intense fast and other particular observations before Easter. ZE06031423
Actually, they celebrate with ALL of the Catholic Churches.
“Actually, they celebrate with ALL of the Catholic Churches.”
Was there a local council which decided this (I know there was no Ecumenical Council which changed things), or was it on account of orders from Rome? So far as I know, no particular church, save those in communion with Rome (and not all of those as a matter of fact; indeed not all Latin Rite Churches celebrate Pascha with Rome), celebrate Pascha according to the new formula from Rome. It seems safe to say, therefore, that not all Catholic Churches celebrate Pascha with Rome.
Just don't go parading it around ... that would be scrupulosity :-)
Actually, its a wonderfully spiritual expercise. Just like the Fathers tell us, by fasting we do grow in our Faith and we do die, at least a little bit, to the self.
That's the whole idea. My lenten book this year is: "Journey Back to Eden" - My Life and Times among the Desert Fathers - by Mark Gruber O.S.B. That plus the Liturgy of the Hours + replacing nightime tv viewing with prayer and a search for new grants for our church. All glory to God!
Passover
21 posted on 01/29/2008 5:24:29 PM MST by Diego1618
NAsbU Luke 22:19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks,Passover:
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given
for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
[1 Corinthians 5:7-8] Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul is celebrating Passover 25 years after the resurrection!
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
ping
I strongly recommend it to all.Great sermon !
b'SHEM Yah'shua
I strongly recommend it to all.Great sermon !
b'SHEM Yah'shua
The only Latin Rite Church in communion with Rome does. :-)
celebrate Pascha according to the new formula from Rome. It seems safe to say, therefore, that not all Catholic Churches celebrate Pascha with Rome.
This is correct: there are (a few) Old Calendarist Byzantine Catholics. I don't believe there are any in the US, but there are (or at least were until very recently) some in Canada, and of course in Eastern Europe.
I'm not aware of any Catholics who use the rather odd setup prevailing among many of the Orthodox, where the feasts of saints are computed by the Gregorian calendar but the date of Pascha is computed by the Julian. The Old Calendarist Byzantine Catholics are completely Old Calendarist; the rest of the Byzantines are completely on the new.
And it commemorates the 40 years in the desert — the wandering and penance of the Israelites.
What other 40 days are there?
It also duplicates Christ’s testing of 40 days in the wilderness. We are imitating Christ.
Maronites what they do? Syriacs, Assyrian, Chaldeans (any info about from IRAQ AD Personnel)?
hmm... what dates are the Eastern Catholics following?
Interesting — for the last couple of years I’ve gone completely vegetarian for all of Lent (incl Sat, Sun), with very little milk (only in my coffee!). You’re right about it being a wonderful spiritual exercise. What was a chore for me (and which I failed miserably at 2 years ago) was trying NOT to feel “holy than thou” and not even telling most folks I was observing Lent unless I had to.
Good thing that Pascha's on its regular schedule! ;-)
Even the Latin Rite churches in, for example, Greece, celebrate Pascha with the Orthodox. The Byzantine Rite churches of course do. The same holds for Bulgaria and Roumania, I don’t know about Russia or Ukraine.
“I’m not aware of any Catholics who use the rather odd setup prevailing among many of the Orthodox, where the feasts of saints are computed by the Gregorian calendar but the date of Pascha is computed by the Julian.”
It is an odd set up. As Kosta has pointed out, the new calendar use is an innovation of a 20th century EP. It has caused all sorts of problems, more than the issue could ever have been worth. The process for determining the date of Pascha, however, was set by an Ecumenical Council so we won’t change it sua sponte.
Shrimp boil!!!
“Shrimp boil!!!”
Lobsters, clams, mussels and scallops too! And big fancy mushrooms and deep fried artichokes and homemade marinara sauce and lentil soup! Yes...sigh...we suffer so for The Faith!
My point exactly.
"Abstinence" isn't much of a sacrifice, for me. I'll eat almost anything.
"Fasting" is another matter entirely.
“What was a chore for me (and which I failed miserably at 2 years ago) was trying NOT to feel “holy than thou” and not even telling most folks I was observing Lent unless I had to.”
Well, you don’t want to do that. Fasting is for us, not others and not certainly for God who has no need of it at all. In fact, if you are at a meal where non Lenten food is served, it would be very wrong not to eat it.
The foregoing notwithstanding, none of that applies around Mohammedans. If you see one of them, be sure to tell them how hard our fast is and what a sissy fast Ramadamadingdong is. It will scare them. You’ve got to have a little fun with fasting!
“Good thing that Pascha’s on its regular schedule! ;-)”
Yeah. Times are tight this year (Boy, are they!) so cheap flowers and lamb is just fine by me!
Moses's 40 days on Mount Sinai before the giving of the law.
AAAARGH! If I knew how to work this newfangled, updated Beeber-like Device, you'd be experiencing an almighty Weight Watchers ZOT! right now.
So you should be grateful that I'm technically challenged.
(And now, back to your regularly scheduled Guinness.)
At the First Council of Nicaea in 325 it was decided that all Christians would celebrate Easter on the same day, which would be a Sunday. It is probable that no method of determining the date was specified by the Council. (No contemporary account of the Council's decisions has survived.) Instead, the matter seems to have been referred to the church of Alexandria, which city had the best reputation for scholarship at the time.
The Council of Nicaea, however, did not declare the Alexandrian or Roman calculations as normative. Instead, the council gave the Bishop of Alexandria the privilege of announcing annually the date of Christian Passover to the Roman curia. Although the synod undertook the regulation of the dating of Christian Passover, it contented itself with communicating its decision to the different dioceses, instead of establishing a canon. Its exact words were not preserved, but from scattered notices the council ruled:
The rule has since the Middle Ages been phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. The reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but an ecclesiastical moon. The difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, while the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is a fixed March 21. Easter is determined from tables which determine Easter based on the ecclesiastical rules described above, which approximate the astronomical full moon.
In applying the ecclesiastical rules, the various Christian Churches use 21 March as their starting point from which they find the next full moon, etc. However because Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches use the Julian Calendar as their starting point, while Western Christianity uses the Gregorian Calendar, the end point, the date for Easter, may diverge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
Deep fried artichokes? Wouldn't that go against the "no oil" rule?
Well, if you're going to get all legalistic about things, its no olive oil!
Chowing down on fried mushrooms for Lent!
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