Yesterday was Gauete Sunday – the 3rd Sunday of Advent. I went on a special shopping trip for a Roman rose tie just for the occasion. Roman rose is a particularly elusive color – definitely is not pink! – a bit redder & rustier - more towards salmon, without being that. Fr. Z has a post all about that: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/12/a-gaudete-question-revisited-real-priests-wear-rosacea/
Here are photos of Father Orr in his beautiful vestments as worn on Laetare Sunday some time ago:
http://www.knoxlatinmass.net/gallery/Laetare2006/Laetare.htm
Here are photos of Father Orr in his beautiful vestments as worn on Laetare Sunday some time ago:
http://www.knoxlatinmass.net/gallery/Laetare2006/Laetare.htm
But what do we have to be joyful for? The economy has tanked. Layoff’s everywhere. Be joyful? Are you nuts?
Well, we aren’t just joyful over nice weather or our favorite team winning or a particularly good piece of pie. The children of God possess an infinitely more valuable inheritance.
Despising not prophetic utterances - & not be being bothered to distinguish between them & just running my mouth – I told my kids yesterday that Christians must be always joyful, even when undergoing treatments for brain cancer or heart problems, as family members of some of my kid’s have. Joyful for brain cancer? We’ll discuss redemptive suffering another day. In any case, we rely not on fates & fortunes, nor health & wealth, nor on the economic weather, nor on political forces. Heaven forbid we rely on ourselves!
Our joy comes from this incredibly simple, but easily displaced idea:
...God created us
......God loves us
.........God will save us if we let him
............Everything else will pass
...............God’s love remains forever
These other things are important & we must attend to them, too, as they can help us toward or thwart us from God’s love. But even the briefest & most pain-wracked life must be a joy, because it is a gift from the God who is all-good. It is an opportunity to know him, love him, & serve him. And to be happy with him forever.
Well, we aren’t just joyful over nice weather or our favorite team winning or a particularly good piece of pie. The children of God possess an infinitely more valuable inheritance.
Despising not prophetic utterances - & not be being bothered to distinguish between them & just running my mouth – I told my kids yesterday that Christians must be always joyful, even when undergoing treatments for brain cancer or heart problems, as family members of some of my kid’s have. Joyful for brain cancer? We’ll discuss redemptive suffering another day. In any case, we rely not on fates & fortunes, nor health & wealth, nor on the economic weather, nor on political forces. Heaven forbid we rely on ourselves!
Our joy comes from this incredibly simple, but easily displaced idea:
...God created us
......God loves us
.........God will save us if we let him
............Everything else will pass
...............God’s love remains forever
These other things are important & we must attend to them, too, as they can help us toward or thwart us from God’s love. But even the briefest & most pain-wracked life must be a joy, because it is a gift from the God who is all-good. It is an opportunity to know him, love him, & serve him. And to be happy with him forever.
Rejoice! …The Lord is near.
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