Liturgical Color for All Souls Day

[UpUpAndAway]

Wow.^^ :yup:

My priest wore violet, as I earlier mentioned he would. He has two violet chasubles and chose the uglier of the two.

 

[Bakuryokuso]

Wow.^^ :yup:

My priest wore violet, as I earlier mentioned he would. He has two violet chasubles and chose the uglier of the two.

Odd that he chose the uglier one

I presume our parish doesn’t have a black tabernacle cover, since you can see a violet one being used in the photo.

 

[phil19034]

My priests wore white at the Ordinary Form Mass I attended. The priest on CatholicTV wore Black with purple trimmings, was pretty sweet looking. Wish more priests would wear it.

The Extraordinary Form Parish in the city of course wore Black, but also has a small coffin covered in black too with the names of souls.

 

[YoungTradCath]

Odd that he chose the uglier one

I presume our parish doesn’t have a black tabernacle cover, since you can see a violet one being used in the photo.

I vaguely recall that black is never used as a tabernacle veil color. Or something like that…

 

[Bakuryokuso]

I vaguely recall that black is never used as a tabernacle veil color. Or something like that…

Ah, maybe! I’ll try to remember to ask whether that’s the case

 

[UpUpAndAway]

Odd that he chose the uglier one

“Ugly” is in the eye of the beholder. He thinks it’s wonderful. I don’t agree. Besides, the other isn’t a vast improvement over the one he opted for.

In the end, he’s the one wearing it. If he wants to look like he was in a food fight before Mass, that’s on him.

I presume our parish doesn’t have a black tabernacle cover, since you can see a violet one being used in the photo.

I vaguely recall that black is never used as a tabernacle veil color. Or something like that…

Ah, maybe! I’ll try to remember to ask whether that’s the case

I did notice that, and I’d be curious to know what the actual rule is!

 

[Usige]

I vaguely recall that black is never used as a tabernacle veil color. Or something like that…

That is correct as far as I know. This link to a handbook for sacristans in the EF seems to agree that when the vestments are black that a violet veil should be used.

 

[stpetric]

I *am *a priest, and I used the violet vestments for All Souls Day. I would have used black, but neither my parish nor I have a black set.

Violet is the color we wear when (as my old Benedictine liturgics professor used to say) the Church is going to hunker down seriously and pray–which is what All Souls Day is for: To hunker down and pray for the faithful departed.

As an aside, I understand the theology behind replacing the Requiem Mass with the “Mass of Resurrection”. But I also note that it’s about the time we made that switch (and started wearing white vestments rather than black or violet at funerals) that we also started introducing “bereavement counselors” and “grief groups”. I think the more subdued rite is more psychologically congruent with the needs of the bereaved, and that that pastoral consideration deserves more attention than it normally gets these days. Confident hope in the resurrection is still there, but it reflects:

1. 
   *]The theological fact that dead need our prayers, and haven’t automatically already achieved sainthood.
   *]The pastoral desideratum of recognzing the grief survivors experience.
   
   Therefore, my preference for violet or black at Masses for the dead.