Jeans...at mass?

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Go back to say 1965 and just about everyone wore a coat/tie or dress to church. Then came the late 1960’s and the 1970’s.

On average, it does appear that Protestants have recovered a whole lot better than most Catholics in this area. Then again, maybe Protestants never began to dress like slobs in the first place…
 
Sometimes I find the people who are “too pulled together” more of a distraction than cruddy jeans. The “Totally Tommy” family always has on matching outfits.

Sometimes being overdressed does kind of seem to be a statement in itself. Just as I think the rebellious attitude of looking as non-conformist as possible has the same intent.

I agree with NanS’ husband a little “see how much we love Jesus.”

But gosh, isn’t that why we all tell each other what we do on this forum? TE HE “Lord, that ain’t right, forgive me for that one…”
 
We can’t dress up for Mass because it is inconvenient, we can’t afford it, it’s not important what we wear. There are all kinds of reasons. Jesus only gave his life for us, I quess he will understand all of our excuses for our lack of respect. It seems to be so hard for us to do anything for the Lord.
 
midwest mom:
We can’t dress up for Mass because it is inconvenient, we can’t afford it, it’s not important what we wear. There are all kinds of reasons. Jesus only gave his life for us, I quess he will understand all of our excuses for our lack of respect. It seems to be so hard for us to do anything for the Lord.
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I’m always reminded of the words of Fr. Benedict Groeschel:

"Don’t worry about the poor, they dress well for church."

Father is talking about his neighbors who live in the slums of the South Bronx…
 
Hm. I usually wear jeans, unless I have to head to work after church. But, they are usually nice jeans with like a sweater or cardigan set and dress shoes. I think only the older people actually don’t wear jeans in my parish. But, I wouldn’t mind dressing up, heck, I’d wear a skirt every Sunday but I feel like I would stand out…so I don’t.

🙂
 
Being a college student, the local Newman Center crowd is almost completely wearing jeans at Sunday Mass. Personally, I dress up more than the jeans/t-shirt sorta outfit. Even though most of the college-age congregation is in jeans, I praise the Lord that they are even at Church in the first place. The rest of campus is still sleeping off the night before.:sleep:
 
The history of jeans is fascinating. They started out as work clothes, then they became a casual attire for the masses (no pun intended), now they are a fashion statement and could at times be considered quite dressy, indeed.
 
I think jeans are inappropriate for most people. In the United States, it’s very rare that a person doesn’t have the money to buy at least one nice skirt or pair of khaki slacks. Most people who wear jeans to mass in the U.S. could easily substitute something slightly dressier without any financial inconvenience at all.

I believe that making an effort to dress nicely when going to mass on Sunday is important. We dress up for important functions. What could be more important than assisting at mass on Sunday?

As a former protestant, I never saw people dressed so casually and scantily for church until I joined the Catholic church.
 
For Daily Mass in the middle of my school day jeans have to do. I often trip and bump things so going through the day in kackie’s, black pants, or a skirt is nearly impossible without ruining them. I wear dark, jeans, usally as clean as they can bed…tho occasioally I have had a spot or two.

On Sunday when I just go to Mass and/or breakfast I will wear a skirt or kackies/black pants. However I do not like wearing dresses or skirts unless they are very long so I usually don’t wear them.
 
I live in a huge tourist area and belong to the only Catholic church in the county, so we get people in all kinds of outfits; from those who are very dressed up to people in shorts who just came from the lake.

Our last priest was very strict about not wearing jeans when lectoring or being a Eucharistic minister, as he should be. Well, I came to an Ash Wednesday service after he left; I wasn’t feeling very well, so I was in jeans and a nice sweater. Our new priest stopped me and asked if I’d read. I pointed out that I wasn’t really dressed for it and he just asked “You can still read, can’t you?” That affected how I view how others dress for Mass; he’s just happy to have us all come to church.
 
I believe that making an effort to dress nicely when going to mass on Sunday is important. We dress up for important functions. What could be more important than assisting at mass on Sunday?

As a former protestant, I never saw people dressed so casually and scantily for church until I joined the Catholic church.

tcraig, I agree with you. 👍
 
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tcraig:
I believe that making an effort to dress nicely when going to mass on Sunday is important. We dress up for important functions. What could be more important than assisting at mass on Sunday?

As a former protestant, I never saw people dressed so casually and scantily for church until I joined the Catholic church.
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tcraig, I agree with you!👍
 
Threads on “dress standards” never go anywhere.

For every person who posts about “Sunday best”, there is another to say “God doesn’t care what I’m wearing”.

Someone will say “jeans are inappropriate”, and someone else will say they’re fine.

And every litany of clothes that are deemed improper will be followed up by a request to mind your own business and stop keeping a tally of who’s wearing what.

This is doomed to argue around in circles. There is simply no right or wrong answer.
 
Does it really matter what you wear? Isn’t God with you always? If so, hasn’t He seen you in everything from your birthday suit (His outfit of choice) to your very best? I tend to think He’s more worried about your soul than your clothes. Did Jesus or the apostles dress in any special way? Didn’t they wear the attire of the time? Don’t we all have bigger fish to fry than this? Something comes to mind about a board in my eye and a splinter in yours. Where did I read that?
 
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msaenz:
Let’s give credit where credit is due, Protestants do a better job of wearing their “sunday best” to church…and they don’t even receive Jesus in the Eucharist like we do.
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It would seem to me that for some protestants, church has become a fasion show. I don’t see anything wrong with a nice pair of jeans.
 
If the Church has not said what the correct attire is, then it is a personal decision, either way.

When I began talking of going to Mass with my boyfriend, and expressed some of my fears about going alone (he’s in another state), he assured me that people at Church will not be judgemental. I certainly hope no one here will judge me by whether I wear a dress or jeans. That certainly would detract from the joy of going. I will find out next Tuesday, I guess…
 
So far no one has been judgmental with people in jeans at Mass–but that’s because here where I am almost everyone is doing it (and not just in my parish, mind you). Again, maybe it’s because we Filipinos are more casual in dressing than anything else.
 
I HATE dressing up. Jeans are dressing up to me- I don’t even like to wear those. Shorts, or sweatpants and a T-shirt are standard for me- that includes Mass. I’ll make sure not to wear anything that is stained or has holes in it though.
 
Absolute limit shorts for me–I won’t wear them. I hold Mass very highly, and would have little excuse to wear shorts, except maybe if I have a severe injury that doesn’t warrant wearing pants.
 
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