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Today, Catholic Christians celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy. It is one of the two Sundays of the year that the priest may wear rose-colored vestments to celebrate the Eucharist (Mass).
If you have a traditional Catholic Advent wreath, today you would light the pink candle and 2 purple ones.
In today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah, we hear some very beautiful words:
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God.
I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation
and wrapped me in a mantle of justice
like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes it growth spring up,
so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations” (61: 1-2a10-11).
Frequently, we read such words and think, “Well, those are certainly beautiful, but they don’t really apply to me. They applied to prophets like Isaiah, but certainly not to me.”
But, if you think that way, you’d be wrong, for they do apply to all of us. For at our Baptism, the Holy Spirit came into us and made a home with us. So, we who are baptized can truly say, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.” How great is that!
2 Comments
Christmas lives all year in your heart Father. Bless you and your Flock. Thank you.
The spirit is strong in you Fr Bob.