On this Sunday we are asked to continue our Advent preparation, and to do so with a sense of joy. 

It’s kind of a cruel paradox. Because the expectations are so high that this be a season of joy, many people are harried.

Some of us don’t do well with imperatives. But at times we all benefit from clearly defined do's and don’ts we can follow to avoid disaster or achieve success.

This church calls this Gaudete Sunday, which means “rejoice.” Gaudete Sunday always reminds me of Fezziwig.

Have no anxiety at all,” Saint Paul tells us in today’s reading. Sorry Paul, but at Christmastime, your plea falls on deaf ears.

It is a tradition that started way back with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and has continued at political conventions and gatherings ever since, even up to today. To spark the delegates and crowds a band starts playing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

With prayers and petitions, and with thanksgiving, we make our requests known to God.

While the readings for the first two Sundays of Advent focus on Jesus’ second coming and John the Baptist as precursor to Christ, the season’s third and fourth Sundays shift, in anticipation of Christmas, to the Incarnation of Jesus, his first coming.

Down, then, with all melancholy. That should never find a place except in the heart which has lost faith. I am joyful. Sorrow is not gloom. Gloom should be banished from the Christian soul.