The editorial of the month

We begin this month wading in the shallows of the Lenten season, and end it in the deep waters of Holy Week; from the 29th March you’ll need to turn to your Holy Week issue. But midway through March, on Sunday 15th, we hear the call that spurs us forward in recollection of our destination: Lætare! Rejoice!

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is also known as the “Refreshment Sunday” of Lent, and—since the Middle Ages—Mothering Sunday. I recently discovered that this first referred to the tradition of returning to your home parish to visit your “mother church” and your family, or sometimes making pilgrimages to the “mother church” of the diocese as a community. The habit of gathering wildflowers on the way to bring to the church gradually evolved to include springtime posies for earthly mothers—and so Mother’s Day was born.

A very blessed Mother’s Day, therefore, to all our mother readers! We can also offer grateful prayers for the repose of any of our mothers who have gone before us to the heavenly banquet, where it is eternal spring.