Does your Church use Blue for Advent?

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Charybdis

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Just a sort of tongue in cheek post here but I was wanting to ask if your priest/church uses the unauthorized blue color for anything related to Advent instead of the Church approved Purple???

Our advent wreath in the church was decked out in these horrid looking royal blue candles!!!
 
No! Our Pastor, who is quite orthodox, uses purple. While the purple of advent is a bluish purple, and that used for lent is a redish purple, blue is prohibited in the Diocese of the United States of America. The only place I know that it is allowed for Advent is Latin America. While there may be others, this is all I know of!
 
I thought that blue was allowed in Latin America for certain Marian feasts but NOT for Advent. :confused: Not sure though.

Anyway, we are properly purple at our parish - no blue. But our Advent wreath this year has three purple candles and one gold one. Not sure about that one.
 
There are purple banners in the sanctuary but three blue candles on the advent wreath. Two blue banners hang in the back of the church. Each year the pastor has been “sneaking” in more and more blue. I guess he figures the average Joe wouldn’t notice. I am obviously NOT the average Joe!!!

Micki
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
Purple, purple, pink, purple at my parish.
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I thought it was officially violet. In any case it ain’t “BLUE.”

I honestly think the use of blue is a subtle protest against the Church. It’s a form of pride that the priest (or perhaps the liturgy committe) is actually making a statement of this sort: “I know better than those bozos in Rome - and certainly those uneducated yahoos in the pews.”
For me I’ve had it with trying to be tactful. It just doesn’t work. It’s time to figuratively hit 'em with a 2x4 - and keep whacking 'em until they cry uncle. Letters to Bishops, the Nuncio, Rome are needed. Show 'em the GIRM. Put it in their faces. They know better and need to stop. I do note that priests who are simply cowed by the liturgy committe mafia often grow a backbone when they know there is support for orthodoxy in the pews.
 
Nicholas_Larkin said:
While the purple of advent is a bluish purple…blue is prohibited in the Diocese of the United States of America.
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Can you please provide a cite for these two claims? I’ve certainly heard them both before, but I can’t recall the source or exact wording involved.
 
The things at the church I started going to look blue to me. The could be a really blue purple, though, I guess. The candles were white and had some design in the middle. I don’t know what color they were.
 
See the Catholic Encyclopedia;

newadvent.org/cathen/04134a.htm

“In the Roman Rite, since Pius V, colours are five in number, viz.: white, red, green, violet, and black. Rose colour is employed only on Lætare and Gaudete Sundays. Blue is prescribed in some dioceses of Spain for the Mass of the Immaculate Conception.”
 
tee_eff_em said:
[ASIDE]
I Think you mean: Purple, purple, ROSE, purple
[/ASIDE]

tee
Who has known many priests of a “Real Men Don’t Wear Pink” Attitude
😛
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Ahhhhh, ya got me!
Our fine pastor looks quite dapper in those Rose vestments!
 
johnnykins said:
I thought it was officially violet. In any case it ain’t “BLUE.”

I honestly think the use of blue is a subtle protest against the Church. It’s a form of pride that the priest (or perhaps the liturgy committe) is actually making a statement of this sort: “I know better than those bozos in Rome - and certainly those uneducated yahoos in the pews.”
For me I’ve had it with trying to be tactful. It just doesn’t work. It’s time to figuratively hit 'em with a 2x4 - and keep whacking 'em until they cry uncle. Letters to Bishops, the Nuncio, Rome are needed. Show 'em the GIRM. Put it in their faces. They know better and need to stop. I do note that priests who are simply cowed by the liturgy committe mafia often grow a backbone when they know there is support for orthodoxy in the pews.
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Violet! You got me too!

But you know that the come back to any of these innovations is “we don’t have the money to replace these”.
 
Digitonomy said:
Can you please provide a cite for these two claims? I’ve certainly heard them both before, but I can’t recall the source or exact wording involved.
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Perhaps I can be of some assistance. I was just looking up that very issue when I read your post.

I cite:
  1. As to the color of sacred vestments, the traditional usage is to be retained: namely,
    a. White is used in the Offices and Masses during the Easter and Christmas seasons; also on celebrations of the Lord other than of his Passion, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Angels, and of Saints who were not Martyrs; on the solemnities of All Saints (1 November) and of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (24 June); and on the Feasts of Saint John the Evangelist (27 December), of the Chair of Saint Peter (22 February), and of the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January).
    b. Red is used on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion and on Good Friday, on Pentecost Sunday, on celebrations of the Lord’s Passion, on the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and on celebrations of Martyr Saints.
    c. Green is used in the Offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.
    d. Violet or purple is used in Advent and of Lent. It may also be worn in Offices and Masses for the Dead (cf. below).
    e. Besides violet, white or black vestments may be worn at funeral services and at other Offices and Masses for the Dead in the Dioceses of the United States of America.
    f. Rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent).
    g. On more solemn days, sacred vestments may be used that are festive, that is, more precious, even if not of the color of the day.
    h. Gold or silver colored vestments may be worn on more solemn occasions in the dioceses of the United States of America.
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  1. Ritual Masses are celebrated in their proper color, in white, or in a festive color; Masses for Various Needs, on the other hand, are celebrated in the color proper to the day or the season or in violet if they are of a penitential character, for example, no. 31 (in Time of War or Conflict), no. 33 (in Time of Famine), or no. 38 (for the Forgiveness of Sins); Votive Masses are celebrated in the color suited to the Mass itself or even in the color proper to the day or the season.
    Source: General Instruction of the Roman Missal
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Now that should answer the question.

Dioceses in the USA have received NO permission to use blue vestments, either during advent or on Marian feast days (as is the case in some places). Since the use of blue vestments would constitute an exception to the established liturgical laws, it is not the case that one has to prove that they cannot be used, rather, it is the case that one would have to prove that proper authorization has been secured to use them.

MT
 
Many thanks, MichiganTrumbul. Am I correct in reading that the rule applies only to vestments? Obviously it would be quite appropriate to use the vestment colors as a cue for other decor throughout the church, but I don’t see any prohibition on using say gold or dark green as the dominant color of church decoration for the entire Advent and post-Advent season, especially those things they didn’t want to redo each week.
 
Ours (Lutheran) just did this year. I’m used to Purple though (we used to use that). Our Advent Candles are more of a royal/indigo blue. But, the altar cloth and the cloak-thingy (can’t think of the name) the pastor wears is blue. Yuck!
 
Jennifer_G said:
Ours (Lutheran) just did this year. I’m used to Purple though (we used to use that). Our Advent Candles are more of a royal/indigo blue. But, the altar cloth and the cloak-thingy (can’t think of the name) the pastor wears is blue. Yuck!
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The “cloak thingy” could be a chasuble or a cope. If it resembles a poncho (one large cloth with a hole for the head to go through), it’s a chasuble. Chasubles come in several styles. Traditionally, Latin-Rite Catholics use a “fiddleback” design (a squarish back panel and a rounded “fiddle” shape front panel joined by two wide strips of fabric over the shoulders) but have started using larger chasubles since the 1960’s.

If it has an open front, like cape, it’s a cope.
 
Charybdis said:
Just a sort of tongue in cheek post here but I was wanting to ask if your priest/church uses the unauthorized blue color for anything related to Advent instead of the Church approved Purple???

Our advent wreath in the church was decked out in these horrid looking royal blue candles!!!
Click to expand...
Is it possible he believes them to be purple? I have debated many colors with my wife over the years, generally I am wrong. With certain mild visual interpretation issues blue and purple could be confused, and some people are sure they are correct in what they see.
 
Yes! For the first time that I can ever remember, my church used this very deep purplish blue. It was more blue than purple. My oldest daughter asked me after mass, “Why is everything blue? I thought purple was the color of advent?” I didn’t have a good answer for her. It surprised me, too, beacause our priest is pretty traditional on most things.
 
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