O God, through your Word you marvellously reconcile the human race to yourself; grant that all Christian people may prepare for the coming solemnities with zeal and lively faith. (Collect Sunday IV Lent)

 So, we have now reached the fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday. A moment to reflect on our Lenten journey thus far. By now it may have become clear what the Lord is inviting us to embrace more fully this Lent, helping us to make sense, or in some cases, re-order, the offerings we made to him of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The collect, a Stanbrook translation, captures the wonder and delight at what the Lord has done for us and how we shall have another opportunity, in the not-too-distant future, to celebrate this reality again in the Sacred Triduum. How can we not respond with ‘zeal and lively faith’ or, as St Benedict would put it, ‘…look forward to holy Easter with the joy of spiritual longing’(RB 49:7)?

Laetare Sunday takes its name from the first word of the Gradual entrance chant, meaning, ‘Rejoice!’. It is, for me, the next best thing to singing ‘Alleluia’ for which we shall have to wait until the Easter Vigil. It encapsulates so much in one word! Today’s celebration gives a new impetus to see us through to the intensity of Palm Sunday and Holy Week and the Triduum. Laetare Sunday provides a place to pause in the desert, an oasis, a brief lifting of the demands of the Lenten season, so we can remember why we walk this path at all. This year the daffodils will be a plentiful blaze of sunshine while, alas, the skies may remain heavy and dark. Laetare signals that joy is not the opposite of repentance but its companion.

If Lent thus far has felt long, uneven, or imperfect, Laetare Sunday gives a window into the transformation that is happening in ways that we cannot fully yet appreciate.

Sr Josephine