This Sunday we celebrate “Rose Sunday”, one of the two Sundays of the year in which the priest and deacon wear rose-colored vestments. This Sunday is also called “Laetare Sunday”, which in Latin means “Rejoice! Be happy!”
In the midst of this penitential time of Lent, this Sunday invites us to look forward to the joy that is to come in the season of Easter. We are no longer a people bound under the burden of sin and suffering, a people without hope. No, through Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection we have been transformed — we are a people of Easter victory, yet still living in the desert of a Lenten world.
This Sunday calls us to “remember the future” and be joyful in hope, even as we have to continue walking a path in this life that is at times difficult. Let us see the “roses whose roots are in heaven” bloom even here in the desert of this passing world!
Also, please remember to keep praying for those preparing for the Easter Sacraments!