Lace in a Requiem Mass

[TraditionalCatholicT]

I’ve heard the use of Lace in vestments represents joy.

However, as I’ve observed this Requiem Mass done by Canon Talarico, all of the Ministers seem to be wearing Lace Albs as well as servers who are wearing lace surplices.

I’m confused, is this a mistake or have I just heard wrong?

I appreciate all replies

 

[Fauken]

I’ve heard the use of Lace in vestments represents joy.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve never heard of it.

 

[Vico]

…
In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

 

[Jen7]

I’ve never heard that. Esp when everything was sewn by hand, I imagine lace just represented the finest and most exquisite type of cloth that could be made - a way of givingGod our best.

 

[Traddy1962]

We typically tend to observe this in my diocese. During Lent, advent, on penitential days, or funerals, we wear plain surplices and the priests wear their plainest Albs. On greater feast days or solemnities we all wear nice lace. One of the priests is an ICKSP too.
We all have surplices, and the priests have albs, that are of varying degree with the lace. Going from plain with no lace, to a lot of it.
This doesn’t necessarily always happen though.

 

[Vico]

I’ve never heard that. Esp when everything was sewn by hand, I imagine lace just represented the finest and most exquisite type of cloth that could be made - a way of giving God our best.

Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910 A.D.

There is no doubt that the Church was the first patron of lace-making in Europe, and the finest existing specimens both of early and late work were made to decorate albs, Mass vestments, etc. A very curious specimen of linen lace of pre-Reformation times is the pyx veil now existing in the parish of Hesselt in Suffolk. This beautiful square, entirely worked in tela tirata, has a hole in the centre through which the chain passed to hand the vessel containing the Blessed Sacrament.
…
It should be remembered that many articles made for church use in early times are much to be admired as a testimony to zeal and devotion. But some the rubrics at present in force would not approve of for use in the sanctuary. Albs and cottas should have the major part of linen; lace, to be correct, should be only twelve inches deep, as an alb flounce, and there should be no frill of lace at the neck.

Pollen, M. (1910). Lace. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Lace

 

[Jen7]

Thanks!

I should add - I think lace looks just awful on men and I detest seeing it on priests and deacons and servers. But I do “get” the historical significance.