The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Episcopal parish in the Diocese of Pennsylvania that is centered on the worship of God, the ministry of all baptized persons, and the call to be agents of Christ’s love in the world.
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Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
8000 St. Martin’s Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19118
215.247.7466

The Rev. Louis H. Temme

The First Sunday in Lent

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent: the forty days during which we prepare to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Lent originally emerged out of the period of preparation for baptism of new converts to the Christian faith; this focus of what it means to live as a baptized follower of Christ continues as one of the dominant themes of the season. In preparation for their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the candidates participated in a rigorous fast on Friday and Saturday and fasted to a lesser degree during the several weeks leading up to Easter. It is from this tradition that the fast of Lent emerged.

This was also a time in which those members of the church who had committed ‘notorious sins’ were removed from the congregation to be reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the community at the Vigil. By the ninth century, it had become customary for the entire church community to observe Lent as a time of self-examination and repentance. These two themes – what it means to live as a baptized Christian and self-examination and repentance – shape the worship of the community during Lent.

You will notice a sharp contrast to the liturgy during Lent from the previous weeks. The appearance in the church is simpler: the candles on the retable have been removed, as has the banner; the usual lovely flower arrangements have been replaced by dried materials; smaller, simpler chairs have replaced the sedilia; vestments are made from unbleached linen. There are periods of silence observed in the liturgy, primarily after the lessons and sermon, in response to the Prayers of the People, and during the Fraction (and after this Sunday, during the procession). The use of the word ‘Alleluia’ has been suppressed, and the services begin with the Penitential Order.

This first Sunday, though, is notably different in that we begin the service (with the exception of 10:15) with the Great Litany. The original meaning of ‘litany’ in Greek was ‘prayer’ or ‘supplication’; however, we have now come to think of the litany as a particular type of prayer in which the congregation makes fixed responses to short biddings or petitions. Litanies are a very ancient form of prayer; this responsorial method of prayer came into use in the Eastern church sometime in the fourth century, if not earlier. It was also in use in the church in Rome by the late fifth century, and began to be used in public processions, frequently as prayers for the protection of crops (the origin of rogation days).

The Great Litany, found on page 148 of the Book of Common Prayer, was the first rite published in English in 1544, predating the first Prayer Book. It follows the traditional form of the litany as it evolved in the middle ages and is divided into five parts: (1) invocations to the Holy Trinity; (2) deprecations, or prayers for deliverance; (3) obsecrations, or appeals for deliverance recalling events in the life of Christ; (4) intercessions; and (5) concluding invocations. There are a number of other litanies within the Prayer Book that are much simpler: the Litany of Penitence in the Ash Wednesday liturgy (pg. 267), Litany at the Time of Death (pg. 462), and the Litany for Ordinations (pg. 548), to name only a few. Prayer Books from 1552 to 1928 had directed that the Great Litany be said or sung every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. The 1928 revision permitted its use at any time; it was no longer prescribed for certain days. However, it has been traditionally used on the First Sunday in Lent. The form we use today is a slightly revised version of the Great Litany published in Enriching Our Worship.