FROM THE RECTOR: FINDING THE FORTY DAYS

Last week I realized that the 1979 Prayer Book kept not only the traditional twelve-day Christmas Season, but also a full forty-day season of Lent and Holy Week—except in the years when the Annunciation, March 25, occurs in Lent. If one begins with Ash Wednesday, omits the Sundays in Lent and the Sunday of the Passion, and then counts the weekdays through Holy Saturday, one has forty days of Lent and Holy Week. This reading of the Prayer Book’s section called “Days of Special Devotion” (page 17) is confirmed by the section called “The Titles of the Seasons” (pages 31–32).