Church Flowers for Laetare Sunday

This coming Sunday - the 4th Sunday in Lent - is Laetare Sunday.  A pre-Vatican II missal published in 1959 introduces the Laetare Mass by saying, "A note of joy and hopeful expectation of God's gifts and graces pervades the Mass of this Sunday."  That is, Laetare Sunday anticipates the joy of Easter.   Its joyful theme is based on the Latin first word of the introit for the day. "Rejoice" (Laetare).

On this day, the liturgical color may be rose rather than violet.  Accordingly, the priest's vestment may be rose in color. The day is sometimes called Rose Sunday. Laetare is an exception to the general rule that no altar flowers may be used during Lent.

Gemma has an excellent post on church flowers for rose Sundays.There you will find many images of floral arrangements and also rose colored vestments.

Certainly roses are very suitable for this day's altar flower arrangement and often pink or rose colored roses are used. If that is the custom in your local church, you will probably want to follow it. An interesting variation, however, might be to use yellow roses in order to associate the theme of the Golden Rose.  The Golden Rose is an ornament given by popes to worthy recipients.  The ornaments are blessed on Laetare Sundays.

Pink and yellow are a good combination, so yellow roses will contrast nicely with the altar frontal (if used) and the priest's vestment. Or you might even mix pink and yellow roses for a warm and attractive arrangement.   Gemma's arrangement at the top of the page skillfully mixes pink and yellow flowers.

If you are planning to use pink or rose-colored blossoms but do not have roses at hand, see the post Pink Flowers for Church Decoration for plants available with pink blossoms.

One caveat:  As discussed in the post Altar Flowers linked above, altar flowers are to be placed on the altar shelf behind the mensa (the mensa is the top of the actual altar).  It is absolutely forbidden to place flowers on the mensa itself.

Laetare Sunday and the Golden Rose

 This coming Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday.  Also called Rose Sunday, Laetare is an exception to the general rule of no altar flowers during Lent.  Its joyful theme is based on the Latin first word of the introit for the day, "Rejoice" (Laetare).

On this day, the liturgical color may be rose rather than violet, and altar flowers may be used.

One aspect of Laetare Sunday that is perhaps somewhat less well known is that it is the day for the blessing of the Golden Rose which popes customarily give to some worthy recipient.

In this context, Pope Innocent III saw in the Golden Rose a mystical symbolism of Christ as the flower arising from the Root of Jesse referred to in the book of Isaiah 11:1.

As for church flowers for this day, see this post.

 
Image:  14th century Golden Rose.  Photograph by Jastrow from Wikimedia Commons.  In the public domain.

The Annunciation Lily

 

March 25 is the feast of the Annunciation.  The Archangel Gabriel's encounter with Our Lady at the time of her fiat has inspired countless works of art.  In an Annunciation painting by Giovanni Bellini, a detail of which is shown above, Gabriel presents Mary with a lilium candidum, commonly known as the Madonna Lily -- and also as the Annunciation Lily.

Many sources describe the lily as signifying the Virgin's freedom from sin and so it does.  But, interestingly,  some see the lily as also standing for Our Lord's purity, such that the Archangel is symbolically giving Our Lord to the Blessed Mother when he presents her with the flower.

One should also note that in Bellini's lovely painting Archangel Gabriel is wearing a crown of olive.  Olive branches signify peace -- in this instance, the peace initiated by Our Lord's incarnation.  And, as noted in the post Silence, Annunciation, Incarnation, which features a painting by Simone Martini, the crown of olives is the crown of the Holy Ghost.

Image:  Detail from Bellini's Annunciation.  From Wikimedia Commons.  In the public domain.