The colour of the Advent candle we light this Sunday is rose – not pink. Rose signifies rejoicing, and signals a spirit of joyful hope during Lent and Advent. It breaks the more sombre tone of these penitential times of the year. This comes from Brother Hyacinth Cordell, a Dominican, who wrote about all this online several years ago. Br. Cordell noted that nature’s cycle is comprised of two things: life and light. The seasons revolve around that—the rejuvenation of spring and summer, the desolation of fall and winter. Our liturgical seasons follow a similar pattern. “The dark colour of violet in Advent,” he wrote, “harmonises well with the diminishing sunlight late in the year.” It also points to royalty, and Christ as our King. “Rose,” he wrote, “is a softening of violet. It is violet approaching white. In this sense, it anticipates the pure white of the Birth and Resurrection of Christ.”
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