Lætare Sunday




Today is Lætare Sunday. If your parish has them at all, this will be your last time to see rose-coloured vestments until next December and Gaudete Sunday.

Strictly speaking, [says the Catholic Encyclopædia,] the Thursday before Laetare Sunday is the middle day of Lent, and it was at one time observed as such, but afterwards the special signs of joy permitted on this day, intended to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, were transferred to the Sunday following. They consist of (like those of Gaudete Sunday in Advent) in the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Vespers; rose-coloured vestments also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dalmatics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent.

In Ireland, and perhaps also in the U.K., it is Mothering Sunday, as my wife, who has just called her mother, reminds me. The C.E. adds this to their piece on Lætare Sunday in explanation:

Other names applied to it were Refreshment Sunday, or the Sunday of the Five Loaves, from a miracle recorded in the Gospel; Mid-Lent, mi-carême, or mediana; and Mothering Sunday, in allusion to the Epistle, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because formerly the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church on this day. This latter name is still kept up in some remote parts of England, though the reason for it has ceased to exist.

The picture above is of today's station church, S Croce in Gerusalemme.