We’re almost halfway through Lent – how is it going with your Lenten proposals? How often have you eaten that cookie at work while trying to abstain from sweets? And those swear words directed at all those stupid drivers on the highway…? Not to mention the extra prayer time you wanted to add every day, shrinking to one minute?
Well, the good thing is that we can always start again! And with spiritual companionship – through Bishop Mulvey’s video series, for example – we can grow in our relationship with God even more in the next 20 days.
But this Sunday is an exception: all of a sudden, there are flowers on the altar again, and the priest wears these pink vestments he only puts on twice a year – on Gaudete Sunday in Advent (when you light the pink candle on your advent wreath) and on Laetare Sunday, the third Sunday of Lent. The color is called rose, not pink, and indicates a glimpse of Easter joy.
Laetare means “Rejoice” in English. This Sunday gets its name from the entrance verse for the Mass of the day. "Laetare Jerusalem" (Rejoice, O Jerusalem) from Isaiah 66:10
This Sunday reminds us that the somber tone of the songs and the Gospel promises us that after the cross, after suffering and death, there will be resurrection and eternal life: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:15).
At Laetare Sunday, everything is a bit brighter. The Sunday is considered a day of relaxation from everyday Lenten rigors, a day of hope with Easter at last within sight. Traditionally, weddings (otherwise banned during Lent) could be performed on this day, and servants were released from service to visit their mother church, where they received the sacrament of baptism.
Laetare prepares us for Holy Week – for the darkness and horrors of Good Friday, reminding us that this is only a transition to Easter Sunday morning. We need darkness to see the light, but we must be reminded that light always follows darkness.
Watch Bishop Mulvey’s Lenten reflection for Laetare Sunday from Saturday afternoon at dioceses.org/lent.