The past two sessions of our Catholic Massterclass have approached the topic of vestments worn by bishops and priests during Holy Mass. I hope that was helpful for you to hear about them and learn their names. These bulletin articles may help you have an opportunity to go back and review at your leisure.

This week I’m going to attempt to tackle a daunting topic, keeping in the theme of dressing during Mass, which is what you are meant to wear during Mass. There are a few things we don’t particularly enjoy receiving instruction about and one of those things is our choice of clothing. In fact, I learned that this has been a topic addressed throughout history by various Catholic leaders. Some “hot topics” seem to always remain hot topics.

To begin, I want to be clear that there are no actual laws regarding how you are to dress when you come to Mass, except that you should be wearing clothes! 🙂 Local dioceses and/or parishes are allowed to implement policies and regulations for dress during Mass, but our diocese and parishes currently don’t have any such policies. Still, I think it’s worth our consideration to think about what we’re up to here. I’d like to propose some principles and invite you to consider how to dress according to those principles.

Jesus tells a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 22:1-14 - I’d invite you to read it - with the image of a banquet hosted by a king. People are invited to the banquet and make excuses for not attending, so the king invites anyone who wants to come. The scene ends with the king confronting a man who came to the banquet but was not dressed in a proper wedding garment. To be sure, there is symbolic meaning to this wedding garment, but there is also a reality that God expects us to be properly prepared to come to His banquet. On this side of Heaven, Mass is that banquet. It is the great feast where Jesus provides for us the best possible Food we can receive in the Holy Eucharist. We come to offer our worship, which is the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus, and then He feeds us with His Body and Blood. Incredible! Just like with the parable, the expectation is that we would be properly prepared for such a banquet. This includes above all our interior disposition - a spirit of reflection, repentance (maybe even going to Confession if we’ve committed a mortal sin), and awe - but it also includes our exterior disposition - dressing in such a way that we both know we’re attending something incredibly important and don’t want to draw attention toward ourselves. I attended a wedding recently and it seems everyone knew to dress better than they usually do and their dress revealed the dignity of the event. I’d invite you to consider whether you approach Mass with even more attention to the dignity of the event.

One little note: some of you grew up at a time when women had to wear some kind of head covering, and maybe others of us have seen a woman wearing a veil during Mass in recent times. Historically, the veil has been seen as a sign of modesty and humility for women in coming before the Lord. If you remember when I spoke about the veiling of the Ark of the Covenant and the other sacred articles of Israel’s worship, the people knew those holy, beautiful objects belonged to the Lord, so they veiled them to symbolize their beauty and glory. A woman wearing a veil is similar: reserving her beauty for the Lord. It is no longer a requirement, but I have noticed more and more women, especially young women, embracing this beautiful practice.