CAPG's Blog 

"Septuagesima Time lasts three weeks. The first week is called Septuagesima Week, the second Sexagesima Week, and the third Quinquagesima Week ; names taken from the Sundays beginning each week.
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The number seven is found in numberless places in the Bible, and here the holy Church invites us to stop and ponder on this number, and on these seasons of the year. Let us go back to the olden times of the fathers of the Church. St. Augustine says "there are two seasons, one the time of our trials and of our temptation during this life, the other the time of our happiness and of our glories in the other life. We celebrate these times, the first before Easter, the second after Easter. The season before Easter represents the trials of the present life, the season after Easter signifies the happiness we will have in heaven. Such is the reason we pass the first of these seasons in fasting and in prayer, while the second season is consecrated to canticles of joy, and then fasting is not allowed."

The Church, the guardian and the interpreter of the Holy Bible, tells us that there are two places relating to the two seasons spoken of by St. Augustine. They are Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is the symbol of this world of sin and of temptation, in the midst of which the Christian must pass his time of trial ; Jerusalem is the heavenly country where the good Christian rests after his trials and his labors of this life. Of these two cities, the one worldly, the other heavenly, St. Augustine writes in his immortal work, " The City of God." The people of Israel, whose history in the Bible is but a grand figure of the history of the human race, were exiled from Jerusalem and were held as captives in Babylon. Their captivity in Babylon lasted for sixty-six years, and according to the great writers on the Liturgy of the Church, the seventy days of fasting and of prayer, from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter, recall the captivity of the Jews in Babylon.

Seven is a mystic number.  In six days, God made the world and he rested on the seventh day. The most ancient traditions of Christianity tell us (...) that the race of man upon the earth is divided into seven great epochs. The first dated from the creation of Adam to the Flood, the second from Noah to the calling of Abraham, the third from Abraham to Moses, the fourth from Moses to David, the fifth from David to the captivity in Babylon, the sixth from the captivity to the coming of the Savior, and the seventh from the time of our Lord to the end of the world. Thus the age of man on the earth is measured by these great epochs. During these different times the Lord prepared the race to receive their Redeemer, and to come into the Church He established for their salvation. In the first epoch, from Adam to Abraham, all justice, all goodness, all godliness, which look down from heaven and was planted in the heart of man, was driven out by sin. In the second, from Abraham to Moses, God called the people of Israel and made of them his chosen race, to receive the prophecies relating to His Son. In the third, from Moses to David, God commanded the tabernacle to be made, the Rites and Services of the Jewish law to be carried out, to prefigure the Services of our Church. In the fourth, from David to the Captivity in Babylon, the nation of the Jews were ruled by kings, the temple of Solomon stood grand and gorgeous, and the world saw the greatest glories of the people of God. In the sixth, from the captivity to the days of our Lord, the Jewish people were the prey of conquering nations; the Maccabees alone could restore in part their departed splendors. In the seventh, from Christ to the end of the world, the Church, founded and established by our Lord, shines out before the nations called to the faith. Its glories are far greater than those of the tabernacle of Moses. The cathedrals of Christendom exceed in splendor Solomon's temple. The ceremonies in our sanctuaries are more sublime than the most gifted imagination of the Jewish priests could fancy. (...)

Thus the number seven is deeply planted in the works of the Creator of the universe. Thus for seven weeks we bow our heads in prayer and fasting before the coming of the glorious day of Easter, and in joy and praise we raise our heads for seven weeks during the glorious Paschal time following Easter. The seven weeks of sadness for our sins before the passion of our Lord, are followed by the seven weeks of happiness following His resurrection. Thus after having fasted and prayed like the Savior in the desert, we rejoice with Him as we rise from the sackcloth and ashes of Lent. We rise with our souls filled with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit imprinted in our souls. This is what the mystic writers on the ceremonies of the Church tell us. They say that the seven weeks before Easter, and the seven weeks following Easter, are according to the mystic number seven, revealed to man from heaven.

The seven weeks from Septuagesima to Easter yearly come and go, while the years of our lives, like the waters of the rivers, flow onward to be lost in the vastness of the ocean ; thus our years pass rapidly on toward the boundless ocean of eternity. The Church, our mother, tells us each year to stop and to think of the Babylon of this world in which we live as strangers, exiled from our home. She tells us to hang our harps on the willows growing on the banks of the Euphrates, like the Jews of old held captives in Babylon, and to prepare for our call to our heavenly Jerusalem above, which is our home beyond the skies, and whose glories we celebrate during the joyful time which follows Easter. She wishes us to sing the canticles of joy in her services, and that while we live here, far from our home in heaven, yet to keep our thoughts on God while in this world, lest attached to earthly things we may be exiled for ever from everlasting bliss with him, for our unfaithfulness while here below, yet,"How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?"  Following thus the inspired Book, the songs and hymns of gladness are hushed in the Church Services during this time of penance, signifying our exile here below. At other times of the year the heavenly Alleluias are often repeated, now they are heard no more, for exiles in the Babylon of this world of sin, we are traveling onward toward the Jerusalem which is above, for "we are travelers far from the Lord."  

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The joyful forty days of the Christmas season have passed. With happiness have we celebrated the birth of God on earth. Now the Church enters the sad and solemn time when we prepare for the mysteries of the suffering and the dying Savior. All around us in the Church are the sombre signs of penance. We are entering in amid the three weeks of our baptism of penance, that we may well and worthily celebrate the Lord's baptism of blood in his sufferings for us on Calvary's cross. We are leaving Bethlehem and going to Calvary. We are leaving the infant God in his mother's arms, and following his steps to see him fasting in the desert. We are leaving him in the manger, and looking for him in Gethsemane. The Illuminating Life of the Christmas time has passed, and the Preparing Life of the Septuagesima time has come. We have seen him in his sweetness as a child; we are going to see him in his weakness as a man, fasting in the desert. But we must pray God for his light, in order to see his Son as each year the Church shows him to us. We must ask for grace to look first into ourselves, and see the sins which dim the brightness of our souls and keep us from seeing the truths of religion. We must ask the light of God to clearly understand how the human race had fallen when our parents sinned by eating in the garden, and to realize the deep wickedness of our sins and the deeper mercy of God in becoming man to save us from being lost forever.

The Septuagesima Season, then, is the time of the year for the deepest thought. In the words of a great writer of the eleventh century, the Apostle says, " We know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now ; and not only it, but ourselves, also, who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption' of our body. ' That creature which groans is the soul looking at the corruption of sin which weeps to be still subject to the vanities of this world in this exile of tears. It is the cry of the Royal Prophet, " Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged." Thus holy David desired the end of his exile in this vale of tears. The Apostle who was wrapped up to the third heaven says, "I am straightened between two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ."St. Paul wishes to be taken from this world of sorrow and to be with Christ.

We must then pray during these days more than at any other time, giving ourselves up to sighs and to tears, so as to merit by the bitterness of our repentance, to return to the innocence we lost in our first parents. Let us weep then on the way, so as to rejoice at its end. Let us pass along the arena of this life so as to merit the awards awaiting us at its end. Let us not be like foolish travelers, who, forgetting their country, get attached to their place of exile and remain loitering on the way to their home. Let us not be like the senseless people who look not for the medicine which will cure their deadly sickness. Let us run to the healer of our diseases, saying to him, " Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak  heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled." Then our Physician will forgive us our sins. He will cure our sickness. He will shower down on us his choicest blessings.

Such are the thoughts which the Church brings before her children during this holy time of Septuagesima, that all may be prepared to celebrate well and worthily the holy Season of Lent. "

Source: The Festal Year, Or, The Origin, History, Ceremonies And Meaning Of The Sundays, Seasons, Feasts And Festivals Of The Church During The Year, Explained For The People by Fr. James L. Meagher 1883