sentences:  In the early centuries, the Lenten fast lasted all day, and so towards the evening the Christians of Rome would begin to gather at a church known as the "collecta" ("gathering place"), where they would be joined by the assembled clergy of the city and the pope.The procession would then move through the streets to the station church, not far away.Having gathered at the daily "statio" ("standing place"), the pope would then celebrate a solemn Mass, and fragments of the Host were sent to the other "stationes" of the city in order to symbolize the unity of the city around its bishop.