Every year midway between Christmas and Easter, we find the Sundays designated by those big “gesima” words – Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. With Septuagesima Sunday, they mark the Sundays which are 70, 60, 50 days before Easter. Quinquagesima Sunday is exactly 50 days before Easter; the others are only approximations.

There have been many joyous events these last few weeks — the Incarnation or birth of Jesus, His Naming and Circumcision, His manifestion to the Gentiles and His Baptism which revealed the Holy Trinity. We knew as we celebrated His Incarnation that He was born for us and that He would die for us. We knew as His blood was spilled in circumcision and He was presented in the Temple, putting Him under the Law, that His blood would be spilled on the Cross and become the perfect sacrifice for our sins to redeem us from the Law. We saw that the Gentile Magi who found Him had to return by a different way, as the way of all who find him must be different after finding Him. And after His Baptism, Jesus spent forty days in the desert before beginning His public ministry, wherein He will be tempted by the devil to make Himself into the various false Messiahs which fallen men still make him. We will soon imitate those 40 days to deepen our love, devotion, and union with our Lord Jesus in the season of Lent and we pray we will see more astonishing things about our Savior— and ourselves.

The gesima Sundays are a time to treasure in our hearts all the “epiphanies” we received during Christmas and Epiphanytide which bestowed upon us a wondrous vision of who Jesus is and a time to prepare ourselves for our own journey with Him into the wilderness and to the Cross. It won’t be easy, we will learn that Lent will require of us self-examination, acts of repentance and a genuine longing for a new way of being in Christ. But we will also be reminded of God’s great consolation to us in Christ, His grace and mercy, His healing Salvation and covenantal lovingkindness to all those who, by the working of the Holy Spirit, see and follow Him to the end by faith. The gesimas are a count down – 70, 60, 50 days until Man’s Salvation bursts upon Death, our last enemy, and rises to Life Everlasting.

Crazy, creative, and strange gifts were given and stolen all in good fun – a yodeling pickle, a metallic cowboy hat, and a rock with a smiley face to name just a few. Thanks be to God for celebration and good times to laugh together!

The gathering will bring together more than 50 bishops from across North America for a week of prayer, discernment, and decision‑making on key priorities, including canonical reform, revised processes for the election of bishops, consent to a new bishop, and prioritizing the mission and health of the Province. Click below for details.