Vox: April 2025 — The Penitential Spirit

The first four weeks of Lent have past. These weeks are a preparation for Passiontide — Septuagesima is the remote preparation, Lent the proximate preparation and Passiontide the immediate preparation for Easter. The novus ordo has abolished Passiontide, making the claim that Lent is a whole but this is not historically true. Passiontide was instituted in the 3rd century and so is older than Lent (though younger, obviously, than Easter).