Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The Parish Priest will be mostly wearing...


Ever since the Pope's makeover, with the Consistory and Advent Vespers a great deal of interest seems to have been shown in his vestments. During Advent the Parish Priest is mainly wearing the vestment pictured here.
Following the publication of the Live Simply Campaign material, much pushed by our diocese, I have decided that we will where ever possible use vestments which will eventually bio-degrade. Which means they are made out of natural ecologically viable fabrics and preferably are re-cycled, or "pre-owned" and are handcrafted.

8 comments:

gemoftheocean said...

There's much to be said for the beautiful hand-crafted vestment. But what did you mean by "recycled?" With you it's a safe bet that doesn't involve bio-degradable newspapers...but what did you have in mind? Materials/fabrics previously used in other garments? and/or other vestments. I had a blog a little bit ago about the chasuble made by St. Therese that was hand painted by her, the cloth for the chasuble was taken from a dress worn by her mother.

I can mentally hear whining from some that "the vestments are too costly" blah, blah. But really WELL made vestments pay off in the long run, they hold up much better. Granted, not all parishes can afford them. But the eye candy is appreciated all around. I expect they can psychologically give the priest a mental boost in his own mental preparation for Mass too, though granted to have been at a Mass said under the prison conditions you described in an earlier post involves putting on the the armor of Christ in a different fashion. And it's all extraordinary, because the same result happens each time. Jesus Christ, re-presented for us.

I hope the pope's previous "getup" under the ancient-regime Marini is recycled into something useful. Like banners for a drum and bugle corp.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, Father, 'pre-enjoyed' would be a good term...that one is rather splendid and the fabric and style are much more comfortable for the priest who wears them in our rather over-heated churches!

Fr Ray Blake said...

Karen
Bio-degradable = not polyester
recycled = old, antique, cleared out by raving iconoclast, or like Madame Martin's frock, remade from some quality fabric.

Cathy said...

Father,
Sounds like a wonderful plan!
:)

Save the environment - wear decent vestments!

Anonymous said...

Fr Ray, it's so marvelous that this dovetails so well with the Live Simply campaign. I hope your bishop will give you a prize for environmental virtue. I think your sacrifice is heroic. To think of the humiliation of having to endure wearing such antiquated garments. I salute you good priest and servant. Your bishop doesn't know how lucky he is to have a you on side.:-)

Fr Justin said...

Very handsome, Father. Is it a Luzar special?

Fr Ray Blake said...

Prize for Fr Justin.

Phil said...

Nice one!

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