SUNDAY: 15 DECEMBER

Today is Gaudete Sunday. Rose vestments are the appropriate liturgical colour today if the sacristan can find them in the back of the closet next to the old black ones. This is the official midpoint in the Advent season – even though we’re really more than half-way to Christmas. Tonight in the traditional (1962) rite of Pope John XXIII and Monday night in the Pauline rite, the Invitatory antiphon changes from “Regem venturum Dominum, venite, adoremus” to “Prope est iam Dominus: venite, adoremus”.

The 15th is also the feast of St. Christiana (or “Nina”) who lived in the 4th century. She is considered the Apostle of Georgia. (The one next to Russia, not the one Sherman marched through.) She prayed to "the God of the Christians" for the Tsaritsa of Georgia and cured her of her illness which began the conversion of the country.