Today is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday in Advent. We mark this by lighting the rose-colored candle on our Advent wreath, and priests wear rose-colored vestments while celebrating Mass. I took the occasion earlier today to light the Roses in Winter candle from Corda Candles. I didn’t realize until finding the link just now in writing this up that the scent is tied to the roses in the image left on Juan Diego’s tilma by Our Lady of Gaudalupe.

Since Gaudete Sunday will always fall within nine days of December 9, perhaps it would be a fitting practice to begin a novena related in some way to roses. In sorting through devotional practices, you might find it helpful to keep in mind the norms that are used in discerning the credibility of apparitions such as the “Bayside Movement” promoting Our Lady of the Roses, on the one hand, and Our Lady Mystical Rose, on the other hand.