The Sunday posts for the Season of Advent have been focusing on some of the healthy challenges offered for our spiritual lives during these days leading up to Christmas. The First Sunday challenged us to stay awake and vigilant, to behold all that is being offered to us.
The Second Sunday included John the Baptist’s challenge to prepare the way of the Lord and to recognize the ways in which we, like Mary, are pregnant with expectation for the coming of the Messiah.
Today is Gaudete Sunday, a day for us to rejoice. The entrance antiphon is from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. The cause for rejoicing is related to the same reason Isaiah is able to prophesy, The desert shall rejoice and blossom.