{"id":58632,"date":"2021-12-12T14:33:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T20:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=58632"},"modified":"2021-12-16T17:01:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T23:01:16","slug":"gaudete-sunday-versus-the-third-sunday-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/12\/gaudete-sunday-versus-the-third-sunday-of-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaudete Sunday versus the Third Sunday of Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today the Church celebrates the Third Sunday of Advent.\u00a0 This Sunday has traditionally been given the title Gaudete Sunday<\/em>.\u00a0 This title comes from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, which reads:<\/p>\n

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Lord is near.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This retains the first word from the older introit<\/em>, although the rest of the text is different.<\/p>\n

In my understanding, this Sunday was seen as a respite from Advent penance, there is the option for Rose vestments (which I understand to be a lighter shade of purple, rather than the pink that I have often seen).<\/p>\n

In earlier times, many Catholics lived Advent as a penitential season.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t as severe as Lent, but it was penitential nonetheless.\u00a0 In secondary school we learned a poem entitled Advent<\/a><\/em> by Patrick Kavanagh.\u00a0 This poem speaks about Advent in the first half of the twentieth century:<\/p>\n

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-<\/p>\n

Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.<\/p>\n

But here in the Advent-darkened room<\/p>\n

Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea<\/p>\n

Of penance will charm back the luxury<\/p>\n

Of a child\u2019s soul, we\u2019ll return to Doom<\/p>\n

The knowledge we stole but could not use.<\/p>\n

And the newness that was in every stale thing<\/p>\n

When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking<\/p>\n

Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill<\/p>\n

Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking<\/p>\n

Of an old fool will awake for us and bring<\/p>\n

You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins<\/p>\n

And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.<\/p>\n

O after Christmas we\u2019ll have no need to go searching<\/p>\n

For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning<\/p>\n

Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ll hear it among decent men too<\/p>\n

Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,<\/p>\n

Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t we be rich, my love and I, and<\/p>\n

God we shall not ask for reason\u2019s payment,<\/p>\n

The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges<\/p>\n

Nor analyse God\u2019s breath in common statement.<\/p>\n

We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages<\/p>\n

Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-<\/p>\n

And Christ comes with a January flower.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can remember my grandfather not putting milk or sugar in his tea during Advent. \u00a0But nowadays most of us seem to be straight into the Christmas season once Halloween is over, if not earlier. Indeed, the idea of Advent penance seems to be absolutely foreign to the vast majority of Catholics (I won\u2019t even get into the fact that Lent has lost its penitential dimension for many). Yet there seems to be no shortage of clergy that preach about Gaudete <\/em>Sunday. \u00a0It always annoys me to be told that we need to rejoice today.\u00a0 I know that the Christian always needs to rejoice in Christ.\u00a0 But on this particular day, I feel that most of us have no right to benefit from a partial respite from penance that we are not observing.\u00a0 Unless I am a visiting priest in a parish that has rose vestments already laid out, I use the normal Advent purple.\u00a0 Then while I use the Mass texts as provided, my homily will rarely center on joy, today I preached on John the Baptist as presented in today\u2019s Gospel reading. In other years I usually base my homily on the Gospel reading and also also on the initial part of the Advent season in general (which unless we have reached December 17 is eschatological rather than Christmas in nature).<\/p>\n

Am I too much of a curmudgeon or a killjoy? Maybe I need to reflect more on Lizette\u2019s post<\/a> from earlier in the week? I would actually like to be wrong here, so hopefully the readers will point out the error of my ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the Church celebrates the Third Sunday of Advent.\u00a0 This Sunday has traditionally been given the title Gaudete Sunday.\u00a0 This title comes from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, which reads: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. This retains the first word from the older introit, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":58634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,91,3086],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-liturgical-year","category-popular-piety"],"yoast_head":"\nGaudete Sunday versus the Third Sunday of Advent - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/12\/gaudete-sunday-versus-the-third-sunday-of-advent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gaudete Sunday versus the Third Sunday of Advent - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today the Church celebrates the Third Sunday of Advent.\u00a0 This Sunday has traditionally been given the title Gaudete Sunday.\u00a0 This title comes from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, which reads: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/gaudete.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58633,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58632\/revisions\/58633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}