Happy Mid-Lent Thursday!

Today is Mid-Lent Thursday, day twenty of our forty-day fast. The Church defers celebration of this Lenten midway mark to Laetare Sunday, when the Introit tells us to “Rejoice” (Laetare), and some non-Lenten modifications make their way into the liturgy, including “the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Vespers; rose-coloured vestments also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dalmatics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent” (Catholic Encyclopedia).

This is time to renew our Lenten resolutions and press on to Holy Week in a genuine spirit of Christian penance.