See for yourself!
If you look at some calendars of the Church Year, you will find that the three Sundays before Lent are not listed as Sundays after Epiphany, but rather as Septuagesima Sunday, Sexagesima Sunday and Quinquagesima Sunday. These are the Three Sundays of Pre-Lent, and on them the theme of the readings and prayers is at least moderately penitential. The reader may be disposed to think: "It looks as though someone decided that forty days of Lent were not enough, and that we needed to practice being gloomy three weeks early, so that we could be up to speed by the time Lent actually started."
In fact, I am told that there is a different explanation. When Italy was invaded by the Lombards in A.D. 568, and the city of Rome was in danger of being captured and sacked, the Bishop of Rome led his clergy and congregation outside the walls of Rome on three successive Sundays to celebrate the Liturgy, as a sign that they sought their chief protection not from fortifications but from the providence of God.
The Prayers found in the Liturgy for those three Sundays reflect the perilous times in which they were written.
O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord.