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Reflection

Rejoice! This Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, is known as Gaudete Sunday, from the latin word for 'rejoice'. Like Lent, Advent is a season of preparation for a major feast (Christmas, the celebration of Divine Incarnation) and was traditionally kept as a period of fasting and prayer. Also like Lent, there is a Sunday which is designated as a celebratory time in the midst of the solemnity of a period of fasting (the Fourth Sunday of Lent is called 'Laetare Sunday' which also, incidentally means 'rejoice' - more details here.

It's a reminder that our lives are never one thing, we exist in worlds of wonder and confusion, joy and sadness, life and death, peace and struggle. When we live the nuances and complications of life, stepping away from the expectations that everything will always be the same, we are freed from being bound by those expectations and instead can meet whatever comes with a sense of readiness to face what life brings to us, and can be open to rejoice, even in places of solemnity and sadness. Just as the words of the Kontakion, which are part of the funeral service, tell us "all of us go down to the dust, but even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Scripture

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. 

2 Corinthians Chapter 1 verses 3 and 4

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Image Credit: Five Dancing Angels, c. 1436. Artist: Giovanni di Paolo (c. 1403-1482)

Worship And Prayer
Celebrating Advent and Christmas