Lent in the 1928 BCP
Lent in the 1928 BCP is the penitential season in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer that runs from Ash Wednesday through the approach to Holy Week. The book presents Lent as an ordered course of public prayer: the Ash Wednesday collect is repeated daily, the Sunday propers move from Christ's fasting to Passiontide, the Daily Office supplies penitential sentences, and the Communion rite requires explicit self-examination on the First Sunday in Lent.
Ash Wednesday and the Daily Lenten Collect
The 1928 BCP begins Lent with contrition and divine mercy, not with self-improvement detached from grace. The collect asks God to create repentance in the worshipper, and the rubric makes that prayer the season's daily refrain until Palm Sunday.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.
The appointed Ash Wednesday Epistle and Gospel give that collect its scriptural setting. Joel calls Israel to inward repentance, while Matthew vi warns that fasting becomes corrupt when it is performed for human approval.
Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.
When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast.
The Sundays in Lent
The First Sunday in Lent interprets the forty days through Christ's own fast and temptation. The collect does not ask for severity for its own sake, but for disciplined obedience: bodily abstinence is ordered toward the Spirit's motions, righteousness, and holiness.
O LORD, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions.
Procter and Frere describe the old Prayer Book logic of the Lenten Sunday propers: the readings are not a random moral series but a sustained contest with temptation, sin, and the Passion of Christ.
They set before us the duty of self-denial, and teach us to withstand temptation by recounting Christ's victories over Satan.
The Fourth Sunday, with John vi, gives Lent a note of refreshment, while the Fifth Sunday turns explicitly toward Passiontide. The 1928 column notes the title "PASSIONTIDE" and calls the Fifth Sunday "commonly called Passion Sunday"; the Epistle then places Christ's blood and priesthood at the center of the season's final movement.
By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Daily Office and Penitential Office
Lent also appears in the opening sentences of Morning Prayer. The seasonal sentences emphasize contrition, return, and filial repentance before the ordinary confession.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
On Ash Wednesday the 1928 BCP also provides a separate Penitential Office. Unlike the older English Commination title, the American office is framed for use with the Litany, with Morning or Evening Prayer, or as a separate office.
On the First Day of Lent, the Office ensuing may be read immediately after the Prayer, We humbly beseech thee, O Father, in the Litany.
Procter and Frere explain the older English Commination background, which helps interpret the 1928 American Penitential Office as a moderated survival of public penitential discipline.
This addition to the ordinary service on Ash Wednesday is a memorial of the solemn public penitence, which formed so distinct a feature in the discipline of the early Church.
Holy Communion and Fasting
The Communion office marks Lent pastorally by requiring the long exhortation on the First Sunday in Lent. In that setting Lent is preparation for worthy reception of the Sacrament, not a substitute for sacramental life.
And Note, that the Exhortation shall be said on the First Sunday in Advent, the First Sunday in Lent, and Trinity Sunday.
Percy Dearmer, writing as an Anglican Prayer Book interpreter, connects this Lenten abstinence to the New Testament and to the Prayer Book's table of fasts rather than to party labels within Anglicanism.
Fasting is often mentioned in the New Testament. Our Lord fasted, and we pray on the First Sunday in Lent that we may use "such abstinence."
Holy Week Boundary
Lent in the 1928 BCP leads into Holy Week rather than ending as a closed moral exercise. Procter and Frere summarize the inherited pattern: Palm Sunday begins the final intensified week, and the weekday Gospels gather the Passion narratives into an ordered course.
The whole week was observed with greater strictness and solemnity than the rest of Lent.
The result is a coherent Prayer Book Lent: penitence begins with God's mercy, fasting is joined to Christ's fast, Sunday readings intensify toward the Passion, daily prayer gives language for contrition, and Communion exhorts the faithful to examine themselves before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Church Calendar (1928 BCP)
- Collects Epistles and Gospels (1928 BCP)
- A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday (1928 BCP)
- Holy Week in the 1928 BCP
External Links
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer
- Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, part A
- Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, chapter XIII
References
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: The first day of Lent, commonly called Ash-Wednesday," Collect and rubric; wording checked against local source `sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm` lines 1319-1345 and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: Ash Wednesday," For the Epistle, Joel ii. 12; text checked against `sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm` lines 1388-1404. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: Ash Wednesday," Gospel, St. Matthew vi. 16; text checked against `sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm` lines 1405-1417. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: The First Sunday in Lent," Collect; text checked against `sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm` lines 1432-1441 and extracted 1928 Standard PDF text. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices, 1910 reprint of the third impression with corrections and alterations, chapter XIII, "The Collects, Epistles, and Gospels; and the Lessons," section on Lent, p. 535 in the printed text. Society of Archbishop Justus, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels: The Fifth Sunday in Lent, commonly called Passion Sunday," Epistle, Hebrews ix. 11; text checked against `sources/justuspropers/ReadingsA.htm` lines 1655-1677. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Collects, Epistles, and Gospels".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Morning Prayer, seasonal opening sentences for Lent, Psalm li. 17; text checked against `sources/justus1928/MP.htm` lines 115-124. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Morning Prayer".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), "A Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday," opening rubric; text checked against `sources/justus1928/Litany.htm` lines 259-268. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Litany and Penitential Office".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices, 1910 reprint, chapter on "The Occasional Services," section VI, "A Commination," p. 641 in the printed text; checked against local OCR `tmp/source-checks/procter-frere-1907.txt` lines 57119-57138. Society of Archbishop Justus, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer".
- ↑ Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Holy Communion, rubric before the Exhortations; text checked against `sources/justus1928/HC.htm` lines 773-776. Society of Archbishop Justus, "Holy Communion".
- ↑ Percy Dearmer, The Prayer Book: What It Is, London: Oxford University Press, 1907, pp. 26-27, section "Evasion"; checked against local copy `tmp/revision-research/lent-in-the-1928-bcp/dearmer-prayer-book1907.html` lines 217-218. Project Canterbury, "The Prayer Book: What It Is".
- ↑ Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices, 1910 reprint, chapter XIII, section "The Holy Week," p. 535; checked against local copy `tmp/revision-research/lent-in-the-1928-bcp/procter-frere-ch13.html` lines 448-466. Society of Archbishop Justus, "A New History of the Book of Common Prayer".