Advent Week Three: Joy
This Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for “Rejoice!” It comes from the liturgy of the Catholic Mass for this Sunday which is “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, Rejoice. Let your kindness be known to all.: (Phill 4-4 & 5)
In the midst of this time, which traditionally is a time of abstinence and going within, marked by the purple candles of the other Sundays, this is a time to come out and rejoice. The candle for this Sunday is rose colored to symbolize this joy.
In our journey of preparing for something new to be born, or reborn, into our lives, a new light, we have moved from Hope to Love and now Joy. We begin the journey by hoping for something new, a renewal of the light we know is always within us but sometimes seems so distant in the dark. I like to think this hope moves into a more definite faith, a strong belief in the rebirth of light. After all, we see it happen every year, and many of us experience it in our lives. This brings us to feelings of love for this new light, not yet seen, but ready to be born. This is loving the baby in the mother’s womb, loving the first shoots of a new plant. The full birth hasn’t happened, but we’re seeing signs.
This, then, moves us into the third stage – Joy. We are joyful with anticipation. I like to use the analogy of having found out on a Friday night that you’ve got a winning lottery ticket, but the lottery office doesn’t open until Monday. Throughout the weekend, you’re not actually a penny richer than before, but you’re living in joy because you know what’s already there, even if not yet visible.
So, let us rejoice together, knowing that, as we do the inner work, working in the darkness of creativity, new light is being born!
These winter nights
are never black and dense,
but white, starlight
dancing off the land.
And then the luminous dawns,
the pearled skies full of hope
no matter what else we know.
~ Barbara Crooker