Rose Sunday, also known as Laetare Sunday, is a tradition celebrated in the Christian faith on the fourth Sunday of Lent (there’s also a Rose Sunday in Advent, but that’s another article for another time). Rose Sunday falls right in the middle of the season of reflection, penance, and preparation for Easter. While it may not be as well-known as other religious holidays, Rose Sunday holds significant meaning for those who observe it.
Fun Fact: Rose Sunday is unique in many ways, including the distinctive Rose (or pink) vestments worn by the clergy during the Eucharist celebration. This liturgical practice is met with mixed feelings among some priests and bishops—some cherish it, others overlook it, and a few outright reject it because “real men don’t wear pink.” (If that’s true, I guess I’m out of luck.)
The Origins of Rose Sunday
The origin of Rose Sunday can be traced “officially” back to the Middle Ages (although it is assumed it was part of church tradition before then). During that time, Lent was observed as a period of strict fasting and abstinence. This meant the people could not enjoy any entertainment or celebration during this time. As a result, Pope Innocent III introduced the concept of “Laetare Sunday” in 1215, which translates to “Rejoice Sunday.” This was meant to provide a break from the somberness of Lent and allow people to celebrate and rejoice in their faith in Jesus and in their many blessings.
As a side note… One of the coolest customs for Rose Sunday goes to Bavaria. In some parts of the region, children parade through their streets with sticks adorned with violets, eggshells, and pretzels. It’s a symbolic funeral parade celebrating the “death of winter.” In some villages, boys are divided into two teams on Laetare Sunday – Team Winter and Team Summer – and they engage in an epic mock battle to decide whether spring is on its way.
By the way…This is a much cooler way to determine if winter is over than relying on a rodent that lives in a hole in the ground… just sayin’.
The Significance of the Rose
The rose has been a significant symbol within Christianity for many centuries. It has been widely associated with the Virgin Mary and has come to represent her purity and her willingness to be the Christ-carrier. The colors of the rose, particularly the pink and red hues, are often seen as a representation of mercy, love, and joy, which are some of the most Gospel-centric values in the Christian faith. The rose has also been used in Christian art and literature as a symbol of the love of Christ and his sacrifice for humanity. Its beauty and fragrance have been used to signify the glory of God’s creation and to inspire feelings of reverence and awe. On Rose Sunday, priests wear rose-colored vestments instead of the traditional Lenten purple, signifying a shift towards the joyful anticipation of the coming Easter celebration.
The Tradition of Commitment and Stability
Aside from its symbolic meaning, Rose Sunday also serves as a reminder of the commitment and spiritual stability required for personal growth. It falls at a crucial halfway point, reminding Christians to reflect on their journey thus far and stay steadfast in their faith for the remaining weeks leading up to Easter. It is a time to renew one’s resolve, strengthen one’s commitments, and continue on the path of spiritual growth enlightened by Christ’s resurrection.
Celebrating Rose Sunday
While the observance of Lent has changed over time, Rose Sunday remains an important tradition in many Christian denominations, primarily the Roman church, some Lutheran churches, and the Anglican Communion. It is often marked by special liturgical services, hymns, and decorations featuring roses. In some churches, rose bushes are blessed and distributed to parishioners as a reminder to stay faithful and continue the journey toward Easter.
Celebration as a Sacred Part of the Lenten Journey.
Rose Sunday serves as a road stop on the Lenten journey, illuminating the path toward the spiritual awakening and renewal of Easter. Just as the customary Lenten disciplines of penance and fasting are necessary on the road to Easter, so is the proverbial pause button during the Lenten austerity to anticipate the resurrection and the profound joy found in the Christian journey.
This theme encourages us to reflect on the beauty of divine love and the inner transformation that comes from aligning one’s life with God’s will. It reinforces the core tenets of mercy, joy, love, and compassion, which are the foundation of our spiritual existence.
As we continue our journey toward spiritual growth, it is essential to remember that faith and action go hand in hand. While understanding theology and church teachings is crucial, it is equally important to put those teachings into practice through acts of love, mercy, and kindness to others. By living out our faith in tangible ways, we can experience the true joy and fulfillment that comes from being children of God.
Rose Sunday Psychology: A Holy Critique of the American Productivity Myth
In the hustle and bustle of modern American life, the cultural ethos largely celebrates ceaseless productivity and forward momentum, often to the detriment of reflective and celebratory pauses. This relentless pursuit of achievement and efficiency risks overshadowing the psychological necessity of restorative breaks, where individuals can reflect, rejoice, and reconnect with deeper values beyond the workplace. With its emphasis on work ethic and productivity metrics, American culture sometimes misinterprets pausing to rest, reflect, and celebrate as a form of lethargy or distraction from ‘more important’ tasks. This misunderstanding undercuts the intrinsic value of such pauses that are crucial for mental health, creativity, and sustained productivity in the long term.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung.
This profound statement by Jung emphasizes the necessity of introspection and reflection. By consciously engaging in pauses for celebration and reflection, we illuminate parts of our inner world that often go unnoticed, thereby gaining the power to shape our destiny rather than being unconsciously driven and even controlled by it.
The cultural inclination to undervalue celebratory and restful pauses neglects the extensive evidence highlighting their psychological significance. As seen in traditions like Rose Sunday, moments of reflection and celebration provide essential psychological reprieve and renewal, fostering a sense of belonging, happiness, and perspective that is critical for holistic well-being. These pauses allow for introspection that can recalibrate one’s priorities and vantage points, offering renewed clarity for subsequent endeavors. By sidelining these moments under the guise of maintaining productivity, we inadvertently compromise on emotional well-being and miss out on the profound benefits that such reflective breaks can accord individuals and society.
One of the more shocking moments of my ministry—and there have been a few that would leave you speechless—was when a parishioner told me point blank that, “There is no such thing as time off to rest and recharge after Holy Week, that’s just slighting the church financially.” This kind of misalignment calls for a cultural reassessment of the values we prioritize and promote to ourselves and the ones we influence. As humans, we need space to pause, reflect, and celebrate life’s milestones and moments of grace—a person who is rested and recharged by the grace, mercy, and love of God will have an impact on the world. Being an agent of hope is unavailable to those de-energized by negativity, exhaustion, and the epistemic certainty that always accompanies fault finding.
The Power of Rejoicing
The essence of Rose Sunday during Lent reminds us that joy and celebration are intertwined with our spiritual walk. It’s a time to reflect on the profound love and joy that our faith brings, especially as we anticipate Easter’s promise of renewal and resurrection. Rose Sunday is a sacred stop on the Lenten journey, which encourages us to hold onto joy, give mercy freely, and practice gratitude. It urges us to carry these sentiments beyond just one day and infuse our everyday lives with the spirit of this season. May the reminder of Rose Sunday uplift us, filling our hearts with an unshakeable faith and a joy that radiates, touching the lives of others. It’s a call to remember that, even in sacrifice, there’s immense joy to be found in our spiritual journeys.
Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way… it’s technically not a beanie. That said, one of the fun things about being a priest is that we get to wear some of the most fantastic clothing in the world. The church has no shortage of headgear options for the clergy. Some of you have seen my biretta (the hat with the silk pom on the top), which I wear on 1st Sundays when we use incense. You’ve also seen bishops wear a mitre (the pointy hat) during their Episcopal visits over the years. Perhaps you’ve noticed a priest or two who wore a small round hat called a zucchetto (zoo-keh-tow) over the years.
I’ve always appreciated what the zucchetto symbolizes (more on that in a moment), but I have hesitated to wear one because… well, let’s just be honest… I knew it would bring some very creative, holy humor. However, a friend who has worn one for years, Fr. Richard Easterling, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Florence, Italy, recently convinced me to wear a zucchetto as a spiritual practice for a few months and then see if it had any effect on my spiritual life. That’s when I said, “What do I have to lose?”
The History of the Zucchetto:
The zucchetto dates back to the fifth century. At that time, when a man was ordained as a priest or was inducted into specific religious orders, their ecclesiastical authorities shaved a bald spot on the top of their heads to symbolize their commitment to Christ as his servants. (During that period, enslaved people and servants had the tops of their heads shaved by their owners/masters). Since the churches in previous centuries were not adorned with Wi-Fi HVAC systems, they were cold and drafty… hence the clergy created a cap to cover the bald spot on their heads. In the original Italian, the word zucchetto means “small gourd” and comes from the root zucca, meaning pumpkin. Apparently, the monks needed a cap to cover their cold and bald pumpkin heads!
So, what does the zucchetto symbolize for me?
The answer is multi-layered. Over the years, I have learned that imagination is a massively important aspect of my faith and spiritual life. When I’m exhausted from the toll things take on me spiritually, mentally, and physically, I always realize that my spiritual imagination is stifled.
In those times of testing, I see a zucchetto as an outward reminder to honor and acknowledge God’s call on my life to serve him as a priest. I also see it as a cue, as St. Paul said to the Romans, allowing God to cover my mind and give me the mind of Christ.
Fr. Kevin Kelly, the rector from St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church in Savanah, GA, wrote an article that shares his reasons for wearing the zucchetto. Apart from being a kindred spirit in the Anglo-Catholic liturgical persuasion, Fr. Kevin says that wearing a zucchetto “Is a reminder that I am called to obedience, humility, and prayer, not just when I want to be or when I “feel like it” but as my obligation, my duty in the service of Christ and the Church.”
For me, the decision to wear a zucchetto—at least for the time being—serves to remind me that I am “under orders.” That, in my opinion, helps me build greater spiritual imagination. It reminds me I am called to creativity, prayer, a positive mentality, a hopeful Christ-like attitude, and brave humility in life. Regardless of how I feel in body or spirit, the zucchetto is a reminder that I have the blessing and the weight of serving under the authority of Christ, and that is empowering and humbling. So, my zucchetto is not just a fashion statement; it’s a message to me that says… “even if I’m a pumpkin head… I’m God’s pumpkin head.”
“Why?” is the first question I ask myself!
I cannot even count how many times I’ve heard the question, “But why?” since April 1999, when twelve students and one teacher were murdered at Columbine.
In the wake of another school shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Texas, I hear that question… When these massacres continue to occur I ask myself—or maybe I’m asking God—“ My God, why?”
19 children. 2 teachers. Dead. Gone. Forever. We weep for what their futures could have given our world, and we weep for how many children those teachers could have changed.
I tried to open social media this morning only to close it quickly because everyone has a prescription for fixing school shootings.
“Teachers need to carry guns!” some said. I asked my son, who is 12 and just completed 6th grade today, “Brody, how would you feel if your teachers carried guns?” He said, “It would scare me. They aren’t trained special operators that know lockdown protocol.” My son’s 12-year-old friend said, “How would we know some crazy teacher wouldn’t lose it and turn it on us?”
Others call for confiscating all guns, including what many of us might have in the tops of our closets… an old single-shot 20 gauge that our great-grandfathers gave our grandfathers that they, in turn, gave us.
I do not have the perfect answer.
But it is heartbreaking to me that some people take to the mountaintops to defend guns and their “rights” before the blood of 19 little kids is even dry on their classroom floors. That is a spiritual problem—a problem with the soul.
One wound I’ll always carry is an atrocity that I witnessed when I served as a military chaplain on a deployment to Afghanistan—only three people know the story. Because of that incident, it is extremely difficult for me to read about the suffering of children at the hands of evil men.
But today… today was different. Today I made myself push far beyond my comfort zone. I made myself sit at my desk after everyone left the office and read… then I began to cry—then weep.
Despite how difficult it was for me, I wanted to know how many school shootings occurred in the past ten years since Sandy Hook, when 26 people were massacred—twenty just little children between six and seven. The numbers were flabbergasting—over 300.
Then I wondered how many shootings occurred in the past twelve months… 46 school shootings leaving 36 dead and dozens more injured.
We live in an age where a disturbed young man can turn eighteen and the next day walk into a store and buy a rifle with 375 rounds of ammunition, then return and buy another rifle two days later. This is in Texas, a state that, last September, passed a law that anyone over 21 can openly carry a firearm with no permit, no training, and no background check. The Governor of Texas called it the “biggest and best” gun law of the 2021 legislative session.
It’s not this way everywhere.
In March 1996, a shooting occurred in the UK, leaving 15 children and 1 teacher dead. Since then, there have been zero school shootings in the UK. Lawmakers were willing to ask hard questions and brave people decided not to sacrifice any more children.
My bishop wrote a letter to our diocese that quoted the prophet Ezekiel; the prophet says, “I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
I pray for a revival of “love your neighbor as yourself.” I’m fortunate to know some people who are willing to love others as themselves. I even know some brave people who would happily take that 20 gauge out of the back of their closet and give it up to save one life. I’m sure that spirit would make our great-grandfathers and our grandfathers proud of us!
And Jesus said to Peter, “Put up your sword. All who live by a sword will die by a sword.” – Matt 26:52
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. – Eccl 9:18
Father Rían +
P.S. The picture below hit me hard… It likely invites reflection…