Lenten Meditations: Sunday 26 March 2017

Mar 26, 2017 by Jill

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FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT – Mothering Sunday and Laetare Sunday

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Laetare Sunday is the popular name for the fourth Sunday in Lent which comes from the opening of the Introit of the liturgy Laetare, Jerusalem” (“Rejoice, O Jerusalem”).

Because the midpoint of Lent is the Thursday of the third week of Lent, Laetare Sunday has traditionally been viewed as a day of celebration, on which the austerity of Lent is briefly lessened. The passage from Isaiah assigned for this day echoes the idea when it says, “rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow. Similar to Gaudete Sunday (following the Sarum Rite) Laetare Sunday, the purple vestments and altar cloths of Lent can be dispensed with and rose colored vestments are set out.

Laetare Sunday’s connections with mothers came through it being the day to visit the mother church or cathedral where one was baptized or raised. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, and servants were not given free days on other occasions. Eventually, the religious tradition evolved into the Mothering Sunday secular tradition of giving gifts to mothers

MEDITATION OF THE DAY: Lent has many images that are associated with it, one that I recall from my days as a young seminarian from a wise priest Fr. Hank Doherty was the 3 R’s Review/Repent/Restore.

Perhaps not a bad theme for Mothering Sunday either. It is a god day to review the value we place in our origins with the gifts given from our mothers or the gift that mother church has given us in our journey. For the times, we have failed to value those mothering presences in our lives perhaps some regret and repentance would not be a misplaced consideration. If we can ponder that, it could be that restoring its value in our lives might be a good discipline for the days of our lives.

It could be a new insight for us, a new way to see, not unlike what occurs to the blind man in the Gospel story from St. John taken from the Church of England Eucharistic Lectionary.

One might think that it is just a matter of course to recognize God’s healing presence in life but we also know that we are a prideful lot and often give credit to human efforts vs God’s grace.
Mothering Sunday on the 4th Sunday of Lent reminds us through the Scriptures that this journey is not only about self-denial; it’s also about receiving the grace of the journey. Consider what we hear in the reading from Ephesians “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord,” or in Psalm 23 which says “He leads me in right paths,” “He leads me beside still waters.” If we review our journey guides by these themes perhaps we will see in a new way and feel the restoration hat comes about through a change of view, a change of heart, a repentance.

PRAYER OF THE DAY:  God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bring together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “Everywhere the need exists for maternal sympathy and help, and thus we are able to recapitulate in the one word motherliness that which we have developed as the characteristic value of woman. Only, the motherliness must be that which does not remain within the narrow circle of blood relations or of personal friends; but in accordance with the model of the Mother of Jesus, it must have its root in universal divine love for all who are there, belabored and burdened. – Edith Stein

Lenten Discipline – As Christians we are painfully aware that billions of people suffer needlessly without access to glasses so that they may see clearly. Part of our vocation is to work to change that. The organization Vision Spring is seeking to change that. You can help by helping them make an impact and giving the sight that we hear about in the Gospel today. Go to http:/​/​www.visionspring.org to bring eyesight to others.

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