Christian Year

SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

Some churches use the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent to remember the Transfiguration. This was when Jesus took three of the disciples, Peter, James and John, up a high mountian. There they had a vision of Jesus talking with the old prophets Moses and Elijah. A cloud covered them all and they heard a voice saying: “This is my Son, my Beloved; listen to him.” [Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-36].

An old name for this Sunday was Quinquagesima which derives from the Latin for fifty as it is fifty days before Easter Day (counting both it and Easter Day).