Laetare means ‘rejoice’. You might say, ‘What, during Lent’?
This Feast Day was inaugurated around the eighth century to give us a ‘lift,’ a word of encouragement to help us continue during this time of renewal, of spring cleaning our lives to make us more loving and more loveable, before Easter Day.
Every year the usual purple coloured vestments are abandoned on this day and the Church’s ministers or clergy, interestingly enough, wear rose pink on Laetare Sunday. This colour contrasts with the more subdued, penitential purple colour adopted in our churches during this season.
So let’s rejoice and be good to ourselves today!
– Sister Bernie Devine, Mildmay Chaplain
Header photo by Kenrick Mills.