Septua . . . What???

It is almost time for Septuagesima!
And if you know what Septuagesima is, you are old! I mean really old! Like almost as old as am I!
We have not actually had anything like Septuagesima since around 1969.
But we did at one time have it and if we had it still, it would be starting this weekend - February 16/17.
Septuagesima!
The word means "seventy" and it begins a sort of count-down to Easter.
Of all of our days and all of our feasts, none excels Easter.
It is like Mother Church just cannot wait.
Lent begins out immediate preparation for this great feast.
But there was a time in our history when we even began to prepare for Lent.
That was Septuagesima.
On that Sunday we already pulled out the penitential purple.
It was time to get thinking about and planning for - what are you going to be about in your journey to Easter this year.
Septuagesima said - Gang, we only have around seventy days to get ready for Easter. So, get moving gang! Get moving!
This is too important to just let slide on by.
That tongue twisting word - Septuagesima gave way to the following week - Sexigesima Sunday which said - Now you have only about sixty days to get ready. Shake a leg, gang!
And then cam the Sunday right before Lent began. That one had the name Quinquagesima! Fifty days more and Easter will be here.
This is too important a time!
Get into it and do it NOW!
Well, the little season of pre-Lent disappeared with the new calendar in 1969.
Too bad!
We are heading to the center of our year, the total focus of our attention. We are moving toward the most important of our days.
We need to take this time seriously.
We need to take this opportunity seriously.
Before those ashes mark our foreheads, we need to ask ourselves what the ashes will call us to this year.
More importantly, we need to ask what that marking of ashes will have God calling us to.
We may not have a Septuagesima Sunday but that should be no reason for us to not start getting ourselves into the mode of personal renewal.
Gang, Lent really is around the corner.
Get into the mood!
Make it dynamite!
Happy Septuagesima Season!