Lent begins with a striking absence of music.
On Ash Wednesday the liturgy begins abruptly without an entrance rite: a feature found also on Good Friday, the other great fast of the Church. Later the sombre mood is taken up musically by the outstanding Mass for Companions written by St David’s former Director of Music, David Stevens, in the very dark keys of B-flat minor and F phrygian (the latter having the same key signature as the former, but beginning the scale on F rather than B-flat). At Communion we move from the brooding modern harmonic language of this Mass to a fine example of plangent 19th-century chromaticism, the tightly controlled drama of Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s ‘Wash me throughly’, setting verses of Psalm 51.
On the First Sunday in Lent it is the custom here and in many places to precede the celebration of the Eucharist with the Great Litany. Rooted in ancient forms of prayer-in-procession, this was the first official English-language liturgical text, published in 1544 as the English Church was undergoing major reforms. For centuries the Litany was appointed to be used every Sunday before the celebration of the Eucharist; it is now suggested for use especially in Lent, though it is always relevant.
Our Offertory anthem, Stanford’s serene setting of the hymn ‘O for a closer walk with thee’ using its associated tune, ‘Caithness’ [684], and our closing hymn, the familiar ‘Lord, who throughout these forty days’ [142], offer repentance and pray for strength and grace to stay close to God in our daily lives, especially during Lent. Another hymn, ‘The sinless one to Jordan came’ [120], ties the Temptation of Christ to his Baptism (which of course immediately precedes it in the Gospel accounts, though the two are separated in our lectionary); to the Eucharist (reference to Christ as the true Bread surely echoing one of his temptations – and ours); and to our own part in Christ’s mission.
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