Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent which is also known as “Gaudete Sunday.” This is an exceptional day because, in this time of solemn preparation for the coming of Jesus, this Sunday is identified with a festive character, like the fourth Sunday of Lent, known as "Laetare Sunday.” The violet color of the liturgical vestments is changed on these two Sundays to pink, and the organ may be played again for the occasion. However, the joy that manifests itself on these Sundays is not the same, that is the magnificence of Gregorian chant: to be able to express the subtleties of the soul with such precision and in such a sublime way. The joy of Laetare Sunday, situated right in the middle of Lent, is a joy surrounded by days of penitence, a confident awaiting, the impulse of joy and enthusiasm needed during the Lenten sacrifices, the final stretch before Easter. However, the joy of Gaudete Sunday is something that shines in our souls, the awaiting of a new presence, as the Bride (the Church) awaits her Bridegroom (Christ). The Lord is already near, and this announcement fills the heart with joy: a joy that is the fruit of the inner peace that the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul when it remains faithful to God's holy will. 

As for the text, it is taken from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians 4:4-6. It is full of an overflowing spiritual joy that spreads abundantly. Paul gives us three pieces of advice in this passage: rejoice, be modest, and do not be overcome by worries. It is a series of counsels for all circumstances, but above all, on this Gaudete Sunday, it is an exhortation from the Church to her members, urging us to realize now the joy, meekness, and confidence that the imminent coming of the Saviour will instill in the souls. The main focus amid these three counsels is a four-word phrase: the Lord is near.

Let us rejoice, for we Christians have every reason to rejoice because what we can experience is a supernatural joy due to our intimate union with Christ. Only a Christianity that is alive, conscious of the divine life, and that has enough faith to abandon earthly well-being and exchange it for eternal life, only this authentic Christianity can attain a true state of joy. Let us rejoice then not only because the Lord is very near, in us and around us, he is by his presence and his relationship with us, the reason for our joy, our sweetness, our abandoned trust, but because the Lord is coming, he is already coming, his presence is already real in the flesh, in grace or glory.

Let us be modest, this is to be faithful in the exact fulfillment of what is asked of us. This is what St. Paul calls modesty, as an exact way and measure of all the virtues. This modesty is the flowering of true spiritual joy and Christian charity. They are manifested, nota sit. May they be notable like it is sung in our Introit, by the kindness, the spirit of conciliation, and compassion. 

Let nothing disturb us. Inner peace can indeed be hindered by the sorrows and worries of external life, but St. Paul wants us to keep away from our hearts everything that could deprive us of that inner peace. For this, let us turn to God in prayer with humble confidence and present our needs to Him who is called the Father of mercies and all consolation. 

As for the melody, it is composed in mode I. It is an invitation to rejoice, imbued with joy. It is not a dazzling joy, but rather a kind of impulse, which rises from within the being with an irresistible sweetness. It has the majesty of the first mode and is perfectly suited to express the nuances of an immense, deep, inner joy that comes from intimate union with the Lord. This is the main difference with the Introit Laetare Jerusalem, which sings a resounding announcement of jubilation to the whole city, a public and external rejoicing. Thus, at the beginning of the piece, in the word gaudete, rejoice, the melody revolves around the fundamental, the Re, showing that this joy is an inner movement of the soul, and the sounds seem to rotate within the soul. At the end of this first incise, the quilismatic movement of the final syllable picks up the strength of the porrectus flexus, of the accent that leads the melody firmly to the Fa and prepares the next incise: in Domino semper, always in the Lord. This inwardness of joy has only one spectator: the Lord. The beautiful salicus in the accent of Domino continues to raise the melody steadily. This time to the La, the dominant, where the Lord is found, the dominant resounds up to three times in the word Domino, underlining this supernatural superior quality that Christian joy possesses. The melodic movement continues to ascend, it surpasses the dominant and touches for the first time the B-flat, one of the sounds that characterizes this Introit. In semper, which means always, it rises twice in succession to B-flat, showing insistence and intensity, which adds to the inwardness. Let us also note that the semitone interval relationship of La-B-flat, masterfully denotes that closeness, that proximity to the Lord. And suddenly, from the La, the melody descends into the low register and moves between the Fa and the Re. Indeed, in iterum dico, I say it again, a recitative on the Fa, marked by the bivirga that closes iterum reminds us that it is a modest, deep, interior joy. The gaudete which closes this first phrase, returns to the inwardness of the fundamental and lengthens peacefully, accentuating the necessary imperative character of this exhortation. 

In the second phrase, modestia vestra, your modesty, the melody rises majestically from the Re to the La, passing through the Fa. Two compositional geniuses design a melodic movement full of force, of impetus: a salicus, Re-Fa-Sol, in the accent of modestia, and a quilismatic movement, Fa-Sol-La-B-flat, in the accent of vestra. "Modesty" comes from "modus", a way of living. “Our life is in heaven,” as St. Paul says. This is what people should be able to see in Christians: It is no longer something interior (the joy of the first phrase), but something very visible to all, which is manifested by the spiritual joy from which flows the goodness, compassion, mercy, love that the Christian puts into all his actions: the B-flat resounds again strongly recalling that joy in the Lord of the first phrase. He and the joy that he brings forth in our hearts, make favorable all our actions, full of charity and goodness. We elevate ourselves and others, and spread in them this charity, with this love for God and others. This is what manifests nota sit omnibus hominibus, that it may be known to all men. A beautiful recitative on the La with masterful ornaments in the Sol and B-flat brings out the strength of the Pauline message that vibrates intensely in this passage. For the third time the motif of B-flat, La, and Sol, appears, evoking that inner, deep joy of intimacy with the Lord, of his presence and his relationship with us. It is a joy that leads to the materialization of our actions with luminous consequences for us and for all those who cross our path: we spread this abandoned confidence, this true state of joy to all those around us.

And if necessary, it is made clear in the text and the melody: Dominus prope est, the Lord is near. This is the only explanation, God alone is enough. Without hardly abandoning the La, from the heights of the mode, the composer makes manifest that which is the foundation of the joy and new life of Christians: The Lord is in us and around us. The melodic movement is accelerated in Dominus prope thanks to two enthusiastic porrectus of Sol-Fa-Sol and La-Sol-La, which lead the melody with great emotion up to a B-flat, all amplified by a majestic melodic movement and another porrectus in est. From the cadence in B-flat, in the last incise of the second phrase the melody begins to move for the first, and only time, towards the Do in nihil, nada, underlined even more so by a bivirga: nothing, absolutely nothing, should disturb us. We should always rejoice, rejoice in the presence of the Lord in us and around us. This is made clear in two compositional nods: the salicus, Fa-Sol-La, of the accent of Domino, which appears again in the Lord, and in the identical melodic turn of hominibus, unlike the cadence, Sol-Fa in hominibus and Fa-Sol, ascending in sitis, which lends a slight touch of joy to the exhortation: let nothing disturb you, God alone is enough, the Lord is near, rejoice (always).

In the last musical phrase, sed in omni, but in all, the melody returns to the low register. The Do makes its appearance again, and a very beautiful melodic arc is traced from the Do to the Do which sounds like a whisper, and like something is being said in the ear. In whatever we need, let us seek the Lord within ourselves, and from there, through our prayer that rises from the depths of our being to the heavenly heights, we make our petitions. The melodic twist in the accent of oratione is once again masterful. The B-flat sounds again, accompanied by the La and the Sol, for the last time. Through prayer, the faithful man raises his petition: He is near and hears even the smallest whisper of man. In petititiones vestrae, your petitions, the melodic movement presents the petitions on the Fa string, after which it bows humbly, with much reverence on the Re, and settles on the Do to close the incise. In the last incise of the piece, innotescant apud Deum, manifest yourselves before God, the accent of the verb of this last exhortation is emphasized by a bivirga on the Fa, in a melodic turn characteristic of mode I. There is a great atmosphere of peace and certainty at the end of this Introit. The melodic movement is carried out peacefully in the low register, in the preposition apud, the neumatic cut in the initial Re, and the porrectus that follow prefigure a fervent reverence before the Lord. The piece ends in the word Deum, it could not be otherwise: the secret of our joy is our union with God, realized and constantly actualized in prayer, as it is sublimely sung in this final phrase. Everything begins and ends in God.