[[Spiritual Formation]] / Lenten Discipline > [!note] New - 2026-03-26 ![[assets/covers/lenten-discipline.jpg]] Lenten Discipline comprises the traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving, and penitential reflection that structure the forty-day period leading to Easter. Within the Anglican prayer book tradition, this observance is framed not as works of human merit but as responses to divine grace, drawing the church through progressively deeper engagement with Christ’s passion and sacrifice. ## Preparation for Lent Before Lent itself begins, the Prayer Book includes a preparatory season known as the Gesimas (pronounced JEZ-i-muhs): a period of spiritual readiness before the main season of repentance. The culmination of this pre-Lent season is Ash Wednesday, the sole day in the entire liturgical year that commands its own distinct service within the Prayer Book.[^bray-common-prayer-p117] Notably, the Anglican tradition did not incorporate ashes into Ash Wednesday observance until the 1970s, making the distinctive symbolism of ash-marked foreheads a relatively modern addition to practice.[^bray-common-prayer-p118] ## The Commination Service and Penitential Witness The heart of Ash Wednesday is the Commination service, which presents a stark catalogue of curses against particular sins. These denunciations fall especially upon transgressions against the vulnerable and needy (for example, those who ‘make the blind to go out of his way’), as well as sins rooted in the disordering of the heart, such as trust placed in human protection rather than in the Lord.[^bray-common-prayer-p118b] The service reaches a climactic moment when the priest leaves the chancel entirely, descending to kneel with the congregation to recite Psalm 51, David’s prayer of confession and restoration. This movement enacts the solidarity of penitence across the gathered community.[^bray-common-prayer-p118c] ## The Three Disciplines: Fasting, Almsgiving, and Temperance The Prayer Book calls the church to fast during Lent, framed not as self-mortification but as a practice of temperance; the restraint necessary to govern disordered desires.[^bray-common-prayer-p120] In practice, fasting typically meant abstaining from rich foods such as meat, with the resources thereby saved being redirected as alms to the poor.[^bray-common-prayer-p121] This threefold movement (denial, restraint, and redistribution) transforms personal discipline into active witness to justice. ## The Lenten Lectionary and Christological Focus Lent comprises six Sundays, with the final Sunday known in the Prayer Book as ‘The Sunday next before Easter’ rather than Palm Sunday.[^bray-common-prayer-p122] Throughout this season, the prescribed readings fix the church’s gaze upon the centrality of Christ’s sacrifice. The collects plead with God to recognise the church as the family of Christ, for whom he died, whilst the epistles and gospels unfold a cumulative typology of atonement: Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, the crucified Christ of the Fourth Gospel, and finally the Epistle to the Hebrews’ declaration that Christ’s offering supersedes all the ancient sacrifices ‘once for all’.[^bray-common-prayer-p123] The Isaac narrative opens a distinct vantage point within this pattern. It allows the worshipper to imaginatively inhabit God’s own perspective, to grasp what it meant for the Father to offer the Beloved Son. This capacity to see the crucifixion through God’s eyes transforms the meaning of Lenten discipline; the work is not self-directed penance but participation in an act of self-surrendering love that precedes and exceeds all human penitential effort.[^bray-common-prayer-p123] The cumulative effect of these readings is to present Lent not as an achievement of human effort but as an extended meditation on grace: on the love of God ‘beyond all imagining’. ## Selected passages > ![[assets/covers/bray-common-prayer.jpg|28]] ‘It is all grace, all the time. • There are six Sundays in Lent, and the last is ==”The Sunday ¡next before Easter.”==’ > > *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, p. 122 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 143.jpg|🖼️]]) > ![[assets/covers/bray-common-prayer.jpg|28]] ‘The collects remember the death of Christ, and ==plead with God to see the church as his own family for whom Christ died== and to turn the hearts of all who are outside of the church ==The readings fix our sight on the sacrifice of the Beloved Son (Genesis 22:1- 19), the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53), the Cru cified One (John 18; 19:1- 37). The epistle provides God’s own interpretation of this event as the culmination of all the Old Testament sacrifices in “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:1- 25 KJV). Here we see the love of God beyond all imagining. As a hymnwriter put it. paraphrasing the collect for Passion Week, with its themes of love, death, and incarnation:== My song is love unknown, my Savior’s love to me,’ > > *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, p. 123 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 144.jpg|🖼️]]) > ![[assets/covers/bray-common-prayer.jpg|28]] ‘But first ==there is prepa- ration for the preparation!==’ > > *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, p. 117 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 138.jpg|🖼️]]) ## Appearances - *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, Samuel L. Bray and Drew Nathaniel Keane - 8 The Prayer Book and the Christian Year, pp. 117–123 ## Related [[Spiritual Discipline]] . [[Penitential Practice]] . [[Repentance and Contrition]] . [[Spiritual Formation]] . [[Atonement]] . [[Resurrection]] [^bray-common-prayer-p117]: [[How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy]], p. 117 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 138.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘Popularly known as “Ash Wednesday,” **this is the only day in the entire year that has its own special service in the prayer book.**’ [^bray-common-prayer-p118]: Ibid., p. 118 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 139.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘In fact, **no Anglican prayer book included ashes for Ash Wednesday until the 1970s.**’ [^bray-common-prayer-p118b]: Ibid. ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 139.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘These curses fall espe- cially on sins against the needy and vulnerable (for example, **”Cursed is he that maketh the blind to go out of his way”),** as well as sins of the heart (for example, “Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, and taketh man for his defence, and in his heart goeth from […]’ [^bray-common-prayer-p118c]: Ibid. ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 139.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘What comes next in the Commination service is a dra- matic moment: **the priest walks out of the chancel, joining the congregation in kneeling and saying Psalm 51,** David’s’ [^bray-common-prayer-p120]: Ibid., p. 120 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 141.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘The Scriptures bid us fast, the Church says, now: Give to thy Mother, what thou wouldst allow To ev’ry Corporation.° **To control our passions, we need temperance (that is, re straint).**’ [^bray-common-prayer-p121]: Ibid., p. 121 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 142.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘**Fasting would typically be abstaining from rich foods, such as meat, and taking the money that was saved and giving it as alms for the poor.**’ [^bray-common-prayer-p122]: Ibid., p. 122 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 143.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘It is all grace, all the time. • There are six Sundays in Lent, and the last is **”The Sunday ¡next before Easter.”**’ [^bray-common-prayer-p123]: Ibid., p. 123 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 144.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘The collects remember the death of Christ, and **plead with God to see the church as his own family for whom Christ died** and to turn the hearts of all who are outside of the church **The readings fix our sight on the sacrifice of the Beloved Son (Genesis 22:1- 19), the Suffering Servant (Isaiah […]’