Laetare Sunday: When Mothering is Honored and Real Men Wear Pink

The church is tickled pink twice per year. We lit the pink candle on the third Sunday of Advent, (Gaudete Sunday), and with it, experienced a lightening in an otherwise penitential season.  The fourth Sunday of Lent is the cousin of the third Sunday of Advent.  It is a pause on the road to the foot of the cross, a time to remember that in the Church we have joy and peace.

Can you see it?  Easter is on the horizon; we are halfway there.

This day is called Laetere Sunday, after the opening words of the Latin mass for this day, "Laetere, Jerusalem"....
"Rejoice, oh Jerusalem, and come together all ye that love her: Rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.  


Laetere Sunday is also known as Mothering Sunday because of the epistle reading for the day, which teaches that not only the Jews, but all who come to Christ, are children of God and inheritors of the promise.

There was a custom of visiting the cathedral ("mother church") of one's diocese on this day.  Hence all members of an extended family were brought together in worship.  In England, this day came to be a day for honoring mothers.  In some places, this Sunday when families were brought together from far and wide was, also, the only day in Lent when marriages were solemnized.

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Laetere Sunday, like Gaudete Sunday in Advent, is a time to pause, at the halfway point on the path to Easter, and experience joy at the coming hope.  The church expresses her joy in the form of rose colored vestments, altar hangings, and/or pink flowers upon the altar.

We are halfway there!
Easter approaches, friends, and joy begins to well in our hearts at the anticipation of it!

While I am at it, I should note that my own mother is a selfless dear person who has blessed the lives of her children and grandchild, and whom we all love beyond words.

Pax Christi!
~Michelle

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