The Fourth Sunday is roughly the mid-point of Lent, and the Church has always thought that we might need a bit of cheer just about now. So the austerity of the season and the purple of penance give way, for just this one Sunday, to the “rose” color.
The Fourth Sunday is also Mothering Sunday—English Mothers’ Day—a day of family visits and baking simnel cakes to take to mom, suggested a just a bit by the Epistle lesson about those two Old Testament mothers, Sarah and Hagar, who represent our two mothers, the Jerusalem that is and the heavenly Jerusalem that is to come.
Another name for today is Refreshment Sunday, and the reference is not to the simnel cake, but to the Gospel story of the feeding of the five thousand. C. S. Lewis calls this of the feeding of the five thousand with the bread and the fishes a miracle of the old creation. Jesus used natural objects — bread and fish — to feed a mixed crowd of believers and unbelievers in a supernatural use of the things of the natural world.
Prayer
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Cathedral Close 
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