The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday. This name derives from the first word of that Sunday’s Introit in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass:
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico gaudete. (Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice.)
The mid-week decision to allow Holy Cross School to reopen as a parish school led to a last-minute rewrite of the parish bulletin, with the page dedicated to the news of the reopening beginning with the words,
We rejoice in the announcement that Holy Cross Elementary School will be opened as a parish school in September 2011.
In a very real sense Gaudete Sunday has come a week early for Holy Cross.
