Gaudete!

I just love the Latin word gaudete.  Part of that stems from the fact that I'm somewhat of a nerd and part of it stems from the fact that I want more "gaudete" in my life and in others' lives.  Gaudete can mean joyful or anything that has the word "joy" in it.

Gaudete Sunday is the 3rd week of Advent where rose colored vestments are worn, anticipating the birth of Christ.  The rose colored vestments are also worn on the 4th Sunday of Lent which is called Laetare Sunday, anticipating the resurrection of Christ! 

But why stop there?  I want every day to be a gaudete day. Gaudete week?  Perfect.  Gaudete month? No problem.  I am on a quest to bring gaudete into my and my husband's life, my children's lives, and into the lives of my friends and family.  I see a lack of it everywhere, even in lives of those who SHOULD be joyful. That seems to be a pity, doesn't it?

Step 1:  Increase prayer life.  That's always a "duh" but I don't follow through the way I'd like.
Step 2:  Find examples of saints or regular joes who brought or bring people joy.
Step 3:  Implement said examples.  Yikes.  Have I mentioned I'm lazy?

I needed to hear this...

Emphasis mine.

"When we realize how special the gifts are that we intend to give to our children, we will not be surprised by the difficulty that we face in doing so. Parenting with the goals we have as parents, is exhausting work. Wouldn't it be easy to drop your kids off at a local school, go off to work with adults all day, pick them up after work, have a dinner together (maybe) then send them to their rooms to play video games, watch TV and finally fall asleep? Surely, the world's way is easier. What makes our way hard is that it is opposed by every evil thing around us. This is why we are offered eternal rewards by God for doing this work...because it is impossible. Only a man or woman who trusts in God's help would even dare to undertake the work. We have to learn to embrace the difficulty and realize that our salvation is in that difficulty."

WM