3rd Sunday of Advent
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
Written by Sarah Joubert
I guess you could say that I was laughed into this world.
My mother had me when she was 41 almost 42 years old. She had already had two sons before me (15 and 12 years before me) and two miscarriages in that time. Her pregnancy was high-risk and most people (even her doctors) did not think it would be likely that I would live, since she was older and had two miscarriages. My mother had faith, though, and decided she would name me “Sarah Elizabeth” after two women who had impossible pregnancies in the Bible. Just as Sarah laughed, my mom was on a double date with my dad when she laughed herself into labor with me. I came fast. No complications or illnesses that I was high-risk for (at least so far so good ;)).
I grew up knowing this story. Knowing that my life is a gift. Knowing that I was brought into this world through joy and laughter.
However, as I grew older. Things got more complicated. I became a big perfectionist. All the pressure was on me to prove that I was a gift. I had to do everything, and I had to do it perfectly. I had to be everything to everyone. That was who I thought “Sarah Joubert” was.
It wasn’t until college, when I met my first spiritual director and spiritual father, that I started to learn what true stillness was. What true delight was. What true joy was.
I started to understand for the first time that I didn’t need to earn the Lord’s love. I didn’t need to complete a checklist of things to do while praying. I didn’t need to do anything. I just had to be. I learned that ultimately, prayer is just receiving the Father’s love and delight that He has for us, and that changed my life.
Keeping in mind that I love to sing, my spiritual director and spiritual father discovered a name to call me to root me in this identity; this truth of just being: “Joyful Song.” He said that I’m more than just a singer, but that I’m the song itself, just the melody written and created to bring joy. The song doesn’t have to do any of the work; it just is.
This is how the Father, our Lord, sees us. He loved us into existence. He delights in us existing. We don’t have to do anything.
THIS is what brings us joy. “We have love because He first loved us.” We have joy because He first has joy with us. He plants that joy in us, first.
Mary’s Magnificat in today’s psalm is her literal “Joyful Song of Praise” that perfectly reflects her whole life. She is His joyful song. His divinely inspired melody.
You are His joyful song, too. I pray that you see your life as a gift, no matter how you were brought into this world. Ultimately, HE did, and He joyfully loved you into existence.
Do you live every day with the confidence that you are a gift?
How can you cultivate more joy - true joy - on this Gaudete Sunday?
How can you make time to just be, today?
Sarah Joubert is a college student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette studying English with a minor in Human Development and Family Science. She is a musician and vocalist at three different church parishes. She has a passion for talking about a woman’s identity in the Lord - particularly as a daughter, sister, bride, and mother. Check her out on instagram. Listen to her music here.
Pray with today’s psalm.