"Gaudete!” (Rejoice!) is the nickname for this Third Sunday of Advent. I hope you will see lovely rose vestments in your churches. They remind us that our penitential preparation will soon be completed, so as to make our Christmas even brighter.
Let’s look at the Collect for the Mass in the Roman Church’s traditional, Extraordinary Form: “Aurem tuam, quaesumus, Domine, precibus nostris accommoda: et mentis nostrae tenebras, gratia tuae visitationis illustra.”
The mickle Lewis and Short Dictionary says accommodo means “to fit or adapt one thing to another, to lay, put, or hang on”. In classical Latin it is found, as in today’s prayer, with “ears”. Think of Mark Antony crying out in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (III, ii), “lend me your ears”. Mens is “the conscience” as well as “a plan, purpose, design, intention”. Mens points to our heart, mind and soul.
