Food for the Soul (Sunday, December 12, 2021)

We are more than half-way through our Advent journey and on this third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday – we are invited to rejoice. Gaudete is the Latin word for ‘rejoice’ and the pink candle which we light in the advent wreath, the flowers on the altar and the rose-coloured vestments worn by our priest all symbolize the joy that is at the heart of the anticipation of Advent. We are encouraged to rejoice for, as it says in Philippians 4:4 – 5, there is need to rejoice, even though we might find it difficult to obey the command to rejoice as we live in a world that seems adrift, filled with crime and violence, strife and suffering. But, as the Collect reminds, we too are “sorely hindered by our sins; and so we implore God to ‘speedily help and deliver us’.

The St Jude’s Writers