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Fourth Sunday of Lent

Lent: March 30th​

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Today is the halfway mark of the Sundays of Lent; Easter is enticingly near. This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday for the first word of the Introit or Entrance Antiphon, Laetare (rejoice); it is a Sunday of joy, our foretaste of Easter joy. The celebrant has the option to wear rose-colored vestments. This is also the Second Scrutiny in preparation for the baptism of adults at the Easter Vigil.​

This Sunday has a place apart amongst the Sundays of Lent. As in Advent we had Gaudete Sunday, so in Lent we have a Sunday commonly called Laetare Sunday. The whole week, with its wealth of liturgical significance, is intensely interesting. This Sunday in vigesimal is in imitation of Byzantine custom, a Sunday in honor of Our Saviour's Cross, for which reason the Station is at Holy-Cross-in-Jerusalem, a great devotional centre in Rome, especially during Passiontide. The great part of the Mass is inspired by this choice. —Fernand Cabrol, OSB, The Year’s Liturgy: Vol I: The Seasons

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Laetare Sunday: Jerusalem, Our Mother

Easter is coming! With childlike joy the Church begins to count the days. Just as on the third Sunday of Advent we felt the thrill and happiness of Christmas, so now we anticipate the joy of Easter. Herein lies the whole significance of Laetare Sunday. It brings to the catechumens a foretaste of the good things they will receive at Easter: e.g., the grace of divine worship, a new spiritual mother in holy Church, the Eucharist as the true manna. And we, the faithful, awaken in our breasts a new consciousness of these tremendous blessings.

Easter will soon be here! That is the new theme which permeates and dominates this Sunday's liturgy. From it all other motifs and topics take their inspiration. Christ, the new Moses, provides heavenly manna, the Eucharist, for His disciples. He leads them to the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church, and makes them God's free children.

1. A Day of Joy. This Sunday has a unique distinction in the Church year — a day of joy in the season of penance and sorrow! The priest may wear a rose colored chasuble, the organ may play, deacon and subdeacon are clothed in festive vestments. All the Mass texts ring with joy; the entrance song is a joyous shout, "Laetare — rejoicel" The Church has the following reasons for the happiness in her soul.

a) In the oldest period the Lenten fast at Rome did not begin until Monday of the third week preceding Easter; today then was a kind of Mardi Gras. Later, when the observance was extended to forty days, this Sunday became Mid-Lent — again reason for a pause and relaxation.

b) The ancient Church rejoiced in her catechumens, whose rebirth was close at hand. She was filled with maternal joy at the prospect of a large family. It is this spirit which gives a joyful coloring to all the older liturgy of Lent.

c) Today's celebration is a preview of Easter, we can not quell our joyous expectation as we anticipate the sacred feast. The Gospel says emphatically: "Easter is near!"

d) This Sunday has also a Eucharistic character—an ancient Corpus Christi. Christ is about to establish His family; through blood and sweat He obtains our daily Bread, the fruit of HIs suffering. The Gospel makes this clear. Christ is the new Moses who in the desert of life gives us heavenly manna.

e) Finally, this Sunday is a nature feast. It is springtime and we are happy over the resurrection of nature. The heavenly Father is about to effect the multiplication of bread upon our fields. In the liturgy, however, springtime in nature is merely a figure of the holy spring that with Easter comes into the land of the baptized. The sign of the Church's ver sacrum is the rose, the golden rose blessed today by the Holy Father. Surely there are many and good reasons for the joy surging through Christendom today.

 

The Golden Rose. It may perhaps seem strange to find the Church in a mood so devoid of sadness and penance during this season of austerity and mortification. Nevertheless today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, the last before Passiontide, she is ringingly jubilant, "Laetare," as the Sunday is called, means "rejoice." Nor is this in any way unnatural because joy and sorrow so often are very close together in the human heart! How frequently joy is born of suffering, how frequently bitter grief crashes our joy! Think, for example, of a mother's pain and happiness, of her joys and worries.

This intricate rhythm of suffering and joy is pointed out for us today by the symbol of the rose. In ancient times Christians brought roses for each other as gifts. Today the Pope blesses the golden rose and delivers a discourse on its symbolism.

a) First of all, I see in the rose a beautiful indication of the closeness between joy and suffering; for with roses come thorns. Should it not fill us with wonder that nature adds thorns to the most beautiful flower of all, the queen of flowers? Do not overlook the great lesson God is hereby teaching.

b) The rosebush is a beautiful representation for the Easter cycle with its two extremes, sorrow over sin and fervent paschal joy. First the thorns grow, then the roses bloom. First we must pass through the thorny period of Lent, first we must hear that sin has banished us to a thorny earth; then, at Easter, the Church opens for us the door of paradise, lush with roses.

c) It was the same for our blessed Savior whose life was very much like the rose. His public career was a thorny bush; yes, in His passion a pricking, piercing wreath was entwined about His sacred head. Along the trunk of the Cross this thornbush grew and its buds did not break open before the stone was rolled back. But suffering was not an end in itself; for Jesus it was only the means of redemption, the sharp point to lance the swell of mankind's guilt, the dark gate to resurrection — His own and that of all God's children. The rose-bush, then, tells us of our Savior's passion and glory.

d) Christ leads, we follow. Christ first, Christians immediately after. Human life is a thorny bush climbing up the tree of the Cross. Self-denial is one sharp thorn, taking up your cross, i.e., embracing all the sorrows and duties and burdens of life, is another. But God promises you roses in return, "Whoever loses his life on earth, will find true, divine life." The rose is the harbinger of holy spring which now has come to our souls. As springtime in nature awakens life, so the Church's spring awakens a God-filled life of grace in all Christ's members. Catechumens, penitents, and faithful are desiring "life in abundance." And its realization brings unspeakable joy!

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—Dr. Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace: Septuagesima to Holy Saturday

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Read More:
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2025-03-30

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Fr. Don Calloway, MIC: The Rosary: Spiritual Sword of Our Lady

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What is the most powerful weapon on earth? In this talk based on his recent book, "Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon," Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC argues that the rosary is a spiritual sword that has won decisive battles. And he has the stories to prove it. Fr. Don Calloway, MIC, is Vocation Director for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception and author of several books about Mary. Fr. Calloway's talk was sponsored by the Chapel Ministries Dept. at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwVdYXyxln0

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The Rosary is a spiritual weapon.  Continual prayer and adoration confounds Satan as he loses influence over those who do not cease focusing on Jesus.

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