Sacred Vestments
From "Liturgical Catechism" by Rev. M. S. Canon McMahon, 1930.
Q. What is the origin of the liturgical vestments?
A. The liturgical vestments, for the most part, have their origin in the ordinary civil dress worn in the Roman Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era.
Q. What movement gave rise to the distinction between the two costumes?
A. The gradual adoption in civil life of the close-fitting garments of the Goths, begun in Rome in the 6th and 7th centuries, and the conservatism of the church in rejecting that innovation.
[comment: the author is referring to shirts and pants, considered barbarian clothing and not worn by the Romans until the time mentioned above]
Q. To what period may we date the development of the present-day vestments?
A. The present-day vestments, for the most part, are, in essential properties and constituents, the same as those developed between the 4th and 9th centuries.
Q. What is the great characteristic of that period?
A. The vestments began to be worn over the ordinary dress, and consequently came to be kept in the sacristy and to be put on immediately before the sacred functions.
Q. Was there at all times a special reverence shown to the vestments in which Holy Mass was offered up?
A. From early times, though the dress was identical, clerics were forbidden to wear the dress used at Mass in their ordinary social intercourse.
The Roman Missal directs the priest to put on his vestments in the sacristy and process directly to the altar to celebrate Mass. Following Mass he is directed by the Missal to return directly to the sacristy the by the same way in which he came. The pastor has been very edified to see that those who occasionally (and for a good reason) go back into the sacristy to speak with the celebrant after Mass wait patiently until he has completed removing his vestments before doing so. This is one small way that we can help to recover the sense of the sacred, not only at our own parish, but with the aim of spreading it widely throughout the Church. "His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." (Mt. 25:23) |