Notes for the Week Thrid Sunday after Advent December 15 2019

Dear friends,
Is that a pink chasuble?
No. It’s not pink. It’s rose. We’re may be “pretty in pink,” and even “in the pink”, but on the Third Sunday after Advent, otherwise known as Gaudete Sunday, we wear rose. Gaudete is a Latin word which means “rejoice,” and purple vestments just don’t seem quite right when you are into rejoicing. That’s why we wear rose vestments, light the rose candle and, well, lighten ourselves up a bit, as we make our way through the more somber purple vestments and candles of other Advent weeks.
Gaudete Sunday can be little like an early Christmas gift to us, a fleeting glimpse into all the no-holding-back rejoicing that is to come. Like the gifts we give to our children when they just simply cannot wait one second longer for Christmas Day to arrive, and we give them the dinosaur pajamas or the fuzzy new pink slippers with the rabbit ears just to tide them over. It usually works for the children, and Gaudete Sunday can work for us, too. A little bit of rejoicing in rose never, ever hurts, even during times that seem just too grey or purple for rejoicing.
We are coming closer and closer to Christmas, and it’s tempting to have done with all the purple and go straight for the red and green. But we’re not there yet. There’s still some waiting to do, before we get to the really big gift of Christmas. There’s still time to make our paths straight for the Lord, to repent, make ourselves right and prepare ourselves for His coming. none of which is easy. So, maybe we should be glad of all the time we can get to accomplish just a little of that before Christ actually comes.
Let’s be glad for Gaudete Sunday and the chance to open the gift of joy it brings. The words of the song tell us “We need a little Christmas, right this very moment,” but maybe it’s just as wonderful to receive and embrace a little joy for now and wait patiently for Christmas, which will come in its own good time and will be well worth the wait.
We journey together,
Mother Esme+
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. (Phil.4: 4-5)