Commentary from
THE ANNOTATED
BOOK OF
COMMON
PRAYER
Edited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT
Rivingtons, London, 1884
SEXAGESIMA.
On all
three of the Sundays before Lent the Apostle St. Paul is set forth as an
illustrious example of self-denial, zeal, and suffering for Christ's sake; and
on Quinquagesima his noble words as to the valuelessness of all such discipline
and zeal without love, set the true Christian seal upon asceticism in every
degree. It is with reference, no doubt, to this application of his
example, that an allusion was made to the great Apostle of the Gentiles in the
Collect; but the manner in which it was made led to its expulsion altogether in
1549, and to the insertion of the more trustworthy expression of being defended
by the power of God. This day is marked "ad Sanctum Paulum" in the Comes.
