In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence. I beg your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.

These are the words that we will say at Mass on the third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudete Sunday, precisely because Gaudette

in Latin is this first word of the antiphon, rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. This antiphon

is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians.

And something that is striking is how he repeats himself twice.

He says, rejoice in the Lord always.

I say again rejoice.

We can ask ourselves why the repetition?

In biblical language, our Lord sometimes repeats himself when he wants to make a point,

when he wants to emphasize something, when he wants to call attention to

us and say, you know, look here, this is important. Take, for instance, when our Lord wants

to stop Abraham from killing Isaac, he sends an angel to stop him and he hears the words Abraham, Abraham.

I know that you're taking me seriously now that you fear God and don't kill your son.

Or when, for instance, Marza is all upset that her sister Mary is not helping her.

And Jesus feels the need to call attention to her in a solemn way, you know, have her pay attention to his words.

He says, Martha, Martha, you are concerned about many things.

Only one thing is necessary. Or even Paul himself, when he first encountered our Lord,

...