Slideshow image

This Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, but it is sometimes ALSO called Laetare Sunday. It’s the first Sunday of Lent to have an interesting name. The first three are just called Lent 1, Lent 2, and Lent 3. Creative, I know! Laetare Sunday is practiced in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, but other denominations may have similar practices, even if they are known by another name.

Laetare Sunday marks the midpoint of Lent, and is always exactly 21 days before Easter Sunday. Historically, Lent was considered to be a rather intense period of grief, fasting, and solemnity. Early Christians observed a “Black Fast”, which was a fast from all food and liquid during daylight hours, with a single daily vegan meal after sunset. Alcohol was prohibited fully during this time of Lenten reflection. This self-deprivation was intentionally undertaken to echo the 40-day period Jesus spent fasting in the desert before beginning his public ministry. It also mirrors the length of Moses’s and Elijah’s fasts.

Due to the intensity of this Lenten period, Laetare Sunday was observed as a reprieve from the solemnity and grief. Many of the rigourous rules were relaxed for the day, and consumption of food during daytime was acceptable in most communities. This was a day of hope, with Easter just on the horizon. Weddings, which were postponed during Lent, would occur this day.

The word laetare is the imperative form of the Latin verb “rejoice,” and this day is marked with a bright rose-pink color in the vestments, in opposition to the purple normally worn in Lent.

The word laetare appears in Isaiah 66:10, which reads Laetare Jerusalem et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam. This translates as “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her” in the NRSV translation of the Bible. This passage was the inspiration for the name of Laetare Sunday, and the following line in the scripture inspires the name for Gaudete Sunday, which is the day of rejoicing in the season of Advent.

Nowadays, most Western Christian traditions do not observe a fast, or at least not as intense as what used to occur. We keep the tradition of going without certain comforts in this time, but we don’t all push our bodies and minds to the same limits as early Christians did. However, Lent is still a time of solemnity, and having this day of rejoicing is still a welcome sight!

And now you know a little bit more about what Laetare Sunday is, and why we observe it.

 

 

Image is The Mass at Manresa, painted in oil on canvas circa the beginning of the 17th century by Andrea Commodi (1560–1638).