The joke is that the feast of St. Patrick (St. Patrick’s Day) is held in mid-March (March 17) so that there is always a feast that takes place during the season of Lent, to break up the fasting. Maybe there is something to that – sprinkling feasts in with our fasts (and fasts with our feasts).

There is a reason why during the season of Lent, we call Sundays the Sundays in, not the Sundays of Lent. Because though this a penitential, more solemn season, Sunday is always a feast and celebration of the resurrection. Sometimes, if people are fasting, Sundays in Lent are a time when people break their Lenten fasts.

This Sunday, the 4th Sunday in Lent, is called Laetare Sunday. This is a Latin word that means “rejoice!” Just like how the 3rd Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday, and a pink candle is lit in our Advent wreaths, in some churches, rose/pink-coloured vestments are worn on this Sunday. We do not have any rose/pink-coloured vestments…yet… but, we can still take this opportunity to rejoice and partake in Laetare. It is the celebration, the joy that is meant to break the austerity of Lent, like an oasis in our wilderness wandering.

Time for repentance, for penitence, for solemnity, for fasting is crucial, I think, for a healthy spiritual life. Wilderness journeys and struggle are inevitable, whether we choose them or not. However, in the middle of them, we need these little moment of light, of joy, of celebration to sustain us, to remind us that though “weeping may linger for the night…joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5b). They remind us of what we are ultimately made for and growing towards – the peace of Christ which passes all understanding, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and the overflowing love of God that gladdens every heart.

May there be blessing and spiritual nourishment in both our feasting and our fasting through the journey of this Lenten season.

Thanks be to God!

CG+