The fourth Sunday of Lent is called Rose Sunday (Lætare Sunday). Rose Sunday is an opportunity to look beyond Christ’s death at Calvary and forward to His joyous Resurrection. The beautiful Golden Rose symbolizes the Risen Christ of glorious majesty. The rose’s fragrance, according to Pope Leo XIII, “shows the sweet odor of Christ which should be widely diffused by His faithful followers,” and the thorns and red tint of the petals refer to His bloody Passion.
Many popes, on the occasion of conferring the Rose, have in sermons and letters explained its mystical significance. Innocent III said: “As Lætare Sunday, the day set apart for the function, represents love after hate, joy after sorrow, and fullness after hunger, so does the rose designate by its color, odor, and taste, love, joy and satiety respectively,” also comparing the rose to the flower referred to in Isaiah 11:1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.”
The custom of giving the rose supplanted the ancient practice of sending Catholic rulers the Golden Keys from St. Peter’s Confessional, a custom introduced either by Pope Gregory II or Pope Gregory III.
The custom, started when the popes moved to Avignon, of conferring the rose upon the most deserving prince at the papal court, continued after the papacy moved back to Rome. The prince would receive the rose from the pope in a solemn ceremony and be accompanied by the College of Cardinals from the papal palace to his residence. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, the rose was sent only to queens, princesses and eminent noblemen. Emperors, kings and princes were given a blessed sword and hat as a more suitable gift. However, if a deserving Catholic emperor, king, or other great prince was present in Rome on Lætare Sunday, he would be presented with the rose.
Earlier, the rose was not blessed. Later, Pope Innocent IV was the first to bless the Golden Rose. The blessing of the rose now takes place in the Hall of Vestments, and the solemn Mass in the papal chapel. The rose is placed on a table with lighted candles, and the Pope, vested in alb and rose-colored stole and cope with a precious miter on his head, begins the ceremony with the usual versicles and the following poetical prayer:
“O God! by Whose word and power all things have been created, by Whose will all things are directed, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, Who art the joy and gladness of all the faithful, that Thou wouldst deign in Thy fatherly love to bless and sanctify this rose, most delightful in odour and appearance, which we this day carry in sign of spiritual joy, in order that the people consecrated by Thee and delivered from the yoke of Babylonian slavery through the favour of Thine only-begotten Son, Who is the glory and exultation of the people of Israel and of that Jerusalem which is our Heavenly mother, may with sincere hearts show forth their joy. Wherefore, O Lord, on this day, when the Church exults in Thy name and manifests her joy by this sign [the rose], confer upon us through her true and perfect joy and accepting her devotion of today; do Thou remit sin, strengthen faith, increase piety, protect her in Thy mercy, drive away all things adverse to her and make her ways safe and prosperous, so that Thy Church, as the fruit of good works, may unite in giving forth the perfume of the ointment of that flower sprung from the root of Jesse and which is the mystical flower of the field and lily of the valleys, and remain happy without end in eternal glory together with all the saints.”
The prayer is finished, the pope puts incense (handed by the cardinal-deacon) into the censer and incenses the balsam and then the musk, and afterward puts the balsam and powdered musk into the tiny cup in the heart of the principal rose. He then incenses the rose and sprinkles it with holy water. It is then given to the youngest cleric of the Camera, who carries it in front of the pope to the chapel, where it is placed on the altar at the foot of the cross upon a richly embroidered silk veil, where it remains during the Mass sung by the first cardinal-priest. After the Mass, the rose is carried in procession before the pope to the sacristy, where it is carefully put away in a place set apart for it until bestowed upon some worthy personage.