Pastor’s Letter: December 15, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: December 15, 2024

13 Dec 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessed Gaudete Sunday to you all! This weekend, we celebrate with an extra burst of joy that our celebration of Christmas is drawing near. You might notice that the priests will be wearing a different color this weekend—one that we usually just see twice a year.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday, introduces a special note of joy into the liturgy, indicating the assurance of everyone in the redemption of mankind by Christ. Its name comes from the Latin word meaning “rejoice,” and comes to us from the entrance antiphon in the Roman Missal (the big red book the priest uses for the prayers of the Mass) for this weekend: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near” (also see Philippians 4:4-5).

For us, the day is one of great rejoicing over the closeness of the Redemption. For that reason, we use rose-colored vestments and light the rose-colored candles of our Advent wreaths. Rose is a color of great joy and helps us call to mind the nearness of Christmas. Rose is also used for the fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, again helping call to mind the nearness of Easter.

Besides using rose vestments on these two special days, the Church uses a variety of colors for various celebrations. According to the General Instruction for the Roman Missal, “The purpose of a variety in the color of the sacred vestments is to give effective expression even outwardly to the specific character of the mysteries of faith being celebrated and to a sense of Christian life’s passage through the course of the liturgical year.” In all, there are eight colors which can be used: green (Ordinary Time), red (Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Pentecost, Feasts of Apostles, Gospel Writers, and martyrs), white (Easter and Christmas seasons, Feasts of Jesus other than His Passion, Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, and all saints who weren’t martyrs), violet (Advent and Lent), rose (Gaudete and Laetare Sundays), and gold or silver on more solemn occasions. In addition to white, which is almost always chosen, violet or black vestments may be worn at a funeral (black can also be used for All Souls Day).

As we reflected last week, things like our symbols and liturgical colors help us to “tune in” with more attention to the spiritual truths we are celebrating. We are made bodies and souls together, so it is fitting that our liturgies would involve both the body and the soul. For example, certain postures during the Mass give an opportunity for the body to invite the soul to a moment of readiness…kneeling is a posture of adoration, so kneeling for the Eucharistic prayer helps us be ready and then recognize that Jesus is truly present. For another one, standing is a posture of readiness and attention—we stand when we pray together and we stand for the words and life of Jesus in the Gospel. In this case, the changing of our position to standing refreshes our attention, and hopefully our readiness, to unite more closely with the words prayed/proclaimed.

In a similar way, seeing things like the changing of the liturgical colors can be a cue to the tone and fervor of the particular Mass we are at. I don’t know about all of you, but as I continue through the years I marvel more and more about how the life Christ has given to us and the way we celebrate that life together are such a good fit for how we are made—bodies and souls together. The Mass as we have mentioned, along with the Sacraments which all have both a physical part and a spiritual part, as well as parts of our devotional life like the beads of a rosary…all these are reminders of our Faith connecting with how we are made and how much Jesus loves us. Joyfully for us, our liturgical life and the changing of the seasons gives us regular opportunities of these reminders!

I pray you all have a joy-filled 3rd week of Advent!

In Christ,

Father Luke