Gaudete! - Rector's Rambling for December 15, 2024

     We are over the mid-point of our Advent observance, which means we have come to Gaudéte Sunday, sometimes known as Rose Sunday.  It is a chance for us to “lighten up” in the heaviness of a penitential season, which is signified liturgically by the use of the rose colored vestments and altar hangings in the place of the “heavier” purple.

In recent years there has been a push to make Advent less penitential in nature.  Lent is the grand penitential season of course, with its precursor “-gesima” Sundays.  There was a third penitential season, observed by the devout, centuries ago.  It was from early August to September 14 (Feast of the Holy Cross), but it was not universally observed.

One way that portions of the Church has differentiated the penitential aspect of Advent from Lent is to replace the purple with blue.  I see this frequently in Episcopal and Roman parishes.  Blue for Advent is said to be an adaptation of the color scheme for the season from the Sarum Rite.  But mixing Rites is generally discouraged, and I certainly wouldn’t want to wear the burnt brick orange of Trinitytide from the Sarum use from June to November.

We need to be penitential.  Not only do we have to frequently (even daily) acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness, but we also need to spend extended periods (a season) in a penitential mode in order to be prepared for the glories of the great gift of Holy Days like Easter, and of course Christmas.  But of course being in a state of repentance for our sins is also important as we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ at the end of time to judge the quick and the dead.  We may be lightening up today with rose vestments and hangings, but in the bigger picture, we are still preparing through repentance and amendment of life for that which is to come.