LAETERE SUNDAY - JOY and The Halfway Point of Lent


 

CHURCH NOTES – Meditation on the LITURGY

Today is the halfway mark of the Sundays of Lent.
This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday, for the first word of the Introit or Entrance Antiphon, "Laetare!" (rejoice); it is a Sunday of Joy.
The celebrant will wear the rose-colored vestments to indicate this sentiment.
This is also the Second Scrutiny for adult catechumens, as they prepare for their baptism at the Easter Vigil.

The Church’s liturgy, on this the Fourth Sunday of Lent, invites us to retrace one of the fundamental dynamics of our baptismal re-birth, through the Gospel account of the healing of the ‘man born blind.’
It is his passage from the darkness of sin and error to the Light of God, He who is the Risen Christ.

Meditation on the Liturgy
This Sunday has a place apart amongst the Sundays of Lent. As in Advent we had Gaudete Sunday, so in Lent we have a Sunday commonly called "Laetare Sunday."
The whole week ahead, with its wealth of liturgical significance, is intensely interesting. This Sunday, "in vigesimal" is in imitation of Byzantine custom, a Sunday in honor of Our Saviour's Cross. The great part of the Mass is inspired by this choice.


Lent is also half over, and Easter is enticingly near.
This Sunday is our foretaste of Easter joy. Knowing the ebb and flow of intensity, even in our best efforts, God deals with us tenderly in rhythms of consolation and desertion.
So today, thoughts of freedom and joy come in the middle of the Lenten season. But the Joy that we are treated to does more than cushion our failing energies and needle our lagging spirits.
It is a positive, meaningful joy, born of our fruitful life in Christ and of our sweet freedom as His purchased children. The Eucharistic banquet of heavenly Bread, foreshadowed by the multiplied loaves and fishes and become now the Bread of Life for the whole Christian world, adds to our Laetare Joy the quiet gladness of every festive meal.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saint Benedict Bascop - The Traveling Saint From England

Image
SAINT BENEDICT BISCOP ( c.   628 – 690) Veneration - Roman Catholic Church - Church of England (Anglicans) - Eastern Orthodox Church We will view his life as travel chronology, because this man never stayed in place for too long! ===== < + > ===== Born to one of Northumbria's* noble families, Biscop Baducing — Benedict's original name — initially served as a thane of the local king, Oswiu. A “thane” was a freeman in Anglo-Saxon England, one between an ordinary freeman and a nobleman, who was granted land by the king in return for military service. * (Northumbria at the time encompassed that part of England stretching from York to Edinburgh.) 653 ... 1st Trip to Rome In this year, 25 year old Biscop left the Kings service, and gave up his estate to pursue an interest in the church. He traveled to Rome's holy sites, and found that Christianity in his native Northern England was quite different from the European mainstream version found in Rome. Christianity in his home
Read more

COEXIST? No.

No doubt you’ve seen the bumper sticker that says: “COEXIST.”     Like similar words, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” it sounds nice. But such slogans are purposely ambiguous and they blur the distinction between good and evil.     The Woke Acolytes of Coexist expect us to surrender to their Godless, secular religion - and you can expect them to turn ugly if you see through their sham and object.     So how do we navigate this "woke and politically correct (PC)," sometimes even hostile, environment?      For that, w e have the example of Nicodemus, who  appears several times in the Gospel of St. John. 1. Nicodemus is a Holy subversive against the cancel culture Elitists. Nicodemus was a Pharisee in good standing... “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night.” (Jn. 3:1) Nicodemus was thus a company man, a team player, and a cog in the wheel of the Pharisee ruling class. So, he went to speak to Jesus on th
Read more

The Assumption of Mary

     The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a commemoration celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and a few other Christian religions around the world. ----- <  ✠ > -----      This celebration of Mary's Assumption began with 5th century Christians (AD 400's), although some evidence points to an even earlier observance. But it was basically a remembrance of Mary's death, without the Assumption connection. Rather, it bore a sense of Our Lady’s, “Birth Into Heaven,” or, as it was known in the Byzantine tradition, her “Dormition” (falling asleep).       The actual Feast of the Assumption, as we think of it, however, was first seen within the Church at Rome during the middle of the 7th century.  So while it has obviously been observed by the faithful for a long time, it did take roughly 13 centuries for it to be declared doctrine:        On 1, November, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Mary’s assumption, body and soul ,
Read more