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“Let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life again; he was lost, and has been found. Then the celebration began.”
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Luke 15:23-24 March 10, 2013Fourth Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday Dear Friends, Lent is a season of fasting and penance, of prayer and special works of charity. Yet every year, in the middle of Lent the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday – meaning a Sunday to rejoice and be glad. Rather than a mistake, I believe this is to remind us even during our fasting and penance, there are the beginnings of celebration and joy. This will be realized more fully on Easter Sunday, and in the Easter season. But in the sure hope and expectation of new life at Easter, even now we celebrate and rejoice.
One of the preface prayers for Lent puts it this way. Your faithful people await the sacred feast of Easter “with the joy of minds made pure.”
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Grant us, O Lord, the joy and serenity which comes from living close to You. Daily renew us in the sense of joy, and let the eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in our souls and bodies, filling every corner of our hearts with light and grace. May we be diffusers of life, may we meet all ills and accidents with gallant and high-hearted happiness, giving You thanks always for all things. Amen Robert Louis Stevenson (adapted)
Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J., CMMB Board of Directors
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