LENT, SUNDAYS IN

As stated in the preceding article the Lenten fast does not include all the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, for theSundaysare so many days above the number forty. They are excluded because the Lord's Day is always kept as a Festival and never as a Fast. These six Sundays, therefore, are called "Sundays IN Lent, notofLent; they are in the midst of it, but do not form part of it; on these Sundays we continue without interruption to celebrate our Saviour's Resurrection." The Sundays in Lent are named in the Prayer Book First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth; the last Sunday being set forth as "The Sunday next before Easter." Popular usage, however, has assigned other names to the closing Sundays in Lent, for example, the Fourth Sunday is usually calledMid Lent Sunday, for the reason that the Lenten Fast is half over. It is also calledRefreshment Sunday, from the Gospel for the Day which gives the account of our Lord miraculously feeding the five thousand in the wilderness; another name isMothering Sunday(which see). The Fifth Sunday is calledPassion Sunday, from the fact that on that day the Church begins the solemn recital of our Lord's sufferings. The Sixth Sunday is known asPalm Sundayas it was on this day our Lord made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, when the people hailed Him as King and strewed palm branches in His way, crying "Hosanna to the Son of David."