Liturgical Dressing: Color Mine Green

In the Northern Hemisphere spring is a veritable festival of green. Green in many different hues in many different plants will be appearing soon.

And we can't leave out the green of the Irish, as on March 17, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated. On this day, the Irish and friends of the Irish will get out their green garments. In North America, schoolchildren not wearing green will be pinched.

Other spring "rituals" include shopping for new clothes. As part of getting ready for Easter and Mother's Day, many women are looking for new outfits for themselves and family members. Color and fashion are very much a part of our lives.

Over the years, the Church has ascribed particular meanings to certain colors and made these colors part of the vestments of priests and altar cloths. Briefly, those colors and their meanings are:

Green The color of growth and and eternal life (e.g., evergreen)

Red The color associated with shed blood and martyrs

Violet (Purple) The gloomy overcast of violet represents sorrow for sin

Rose Joy! Used during one Sunday during Advent and Lent to represent our Joy in the Lord and that the season of "gloom" is almost over!

Black Mourning. Traditionally used for funerals, but is being replaced in custom by . . .

White The color of light, purity, and holiness

About a year and a half ago, I decided to that as often as possible I would wear the liturgical colors to Mass. I had several reasons. One, I was often the lector and for aesthetic reasons wanted to "blend in" with the priest's vestments. Also, if possible, I wanted to reinforce the message of the color in the minds of parishioners, including myself. It was my way of saying, "The color choices of the Church and their meaning are important." And, I hoped, the Lord would accept my actions as a form of worship and praise.

Dressing "liturgically" is fun and challenging. I was the lector one Gaudette Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent when the liturgical color may be rose, the color of joy, rather than purple, the color of sorrow and repentance. I do not own a nice rose (or even pink) outfit. So I wore a purple outfit with a large scarf with rose colored flowers. I had finally found a use for that scarf I had bought just because it was marked down $60!!