"Clear thinking about God purifies the soul!"

     Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P., on the importance of a steady diet of Aquinas.  Note to me dated 15 December 2015.

Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

Gaudete in Domino semper:
iterum dico, gaudete.
Dominus enim prope est.

     Entrance antiphon, Third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday").  Image from one of the two earliest antiphonaries in which it still appears, the 8th/9th-century (c. 800) Antiphonary of Mont-Blandin.  Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale 10127-10144, fol. 90v (=image no. 187 in the digitization), ll. 11-14, where the text, according to Hesbert (Antiphonale missarum sextuplex (Brussels:  Vromant & Co., 1935), no. 4, p. 6), reads as follows:

AN[T]. Gaudete in D[omi]no semp[er] iterum dico gaudete modestia v[est]ra nota sit omnibus hominibus D[omi]n[u]s p[ro]pe e[st] nihil solliciti sitis sed in omni oratione petitiones v[est]re innotescant apud D[eu]m.  PSAL[M]. Benedixisti D[omi]ne.