Sunday Best? Church Leaders Blush at "Casual Catholic" Dress

[ringil]

you sure are getting irritated and putting a lot of words in my mouth, when all I suggested was putting a change of clothes in a bag.

I just weighed my clothes: I usually wear slacks and a dress shirt and shoes. If you tend to wear nicer shoes to class, you wont even have to change shoes. Grand total of 3 pounds, including shoes. If they’re folded properly they wont wrinkle, and many clothes are made wrinkle resistant. For ladies, a dress might weigh even less. I doubt that people’s backpacks are so stuffed that they cant fit 3lbs of clothing in them.

WOW, you think college students should change clothes before mass, that’s not going to happen, and IMO there’s no need for it.

God Bless students who are taking the time to celebrate daily mass.

 

[Wolseley]

As an aside, many of the '60s-influenced priests (and this is true where I am) also burden us with strictly folk-guitar Masses

(shudder)

My bag that I take is already full with school-related things, and it would be dumb to take a second bag just for a second set of clothes that would be worn for ~20 minutes. Oh, and this isn’t taking into account the fact that there isn’t actually time to change as my classes run from when I get to the university until 10 minutes before Mass (if class ends on time, which is iffy), and the chapel is halfway across campus. I’ll save you the math and reiterate that there’s no time to change. This is not at all a unique situation either.

But surely you can dress more nicely for Sunday Masses, right?

And that is exactly the problem I find when folks try comparing God to secular societal expections and what one might wear to dinner or to a job or interview or to meet the Quenn of England or POTUS.

If I were going to meet the current POTUS, I’d probably wear grubby green fatigues, combat boots, a black beret sporting a big red star, a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer and sickle on it, and be smoking a cigar----just so he’d feel at home.

I miss guitar Mass.

(shudder) If I NEVER have to suffer through another interminable, hideous “guitar Mass”, it’ll be way too soon.

Now if we could just get rid of those miserable 1970’s OCP folk songs…

 

[ringil]

I’m not saying dress in your sloppiest clothes. Wear something modest that won’t affect normal people (there was once a poster in a forum that told people they should b
If someone is being affect by others, for the most part it is their problem. Stop watching others to see if they’re as pious as you or live up to your “standards” (this is a general comment to all the posters: your own opinion does not doctrine make. Stop equating your own piety with capital T truth). Keep your eyes on Jesus.

You know the only time I have looked at what others wear at Mass? After reading these threads!

It’s a good question though- why are folks noticing what other parishioners are wearing at mass? Our hearts and minds should be on God.

Perhaps if we find our minds wandering onto superfluous things we should focus back on what is really important.

 

[Tigg]

My point was entirely that it is their heart that counts and I don’t think God really cares how we are dressed.

Really? He doesn’t care??

If we dress because it’s all about MY comfort, MY convenience, MY propriety, MY lackadaisical attitude, MY apathy and MY choice to dress as I please, just what does that say about your “heart?” That you are focused on “Self” first and the **Celebration **second; that the Event you are attending deserves no better consideration than that YOU not be put out. If God, indeed, looks at the “heart,” then the heart needs to be properly inclined toward the **Invitation ** itself and understand what the **Occasion **is that we are celebrating (which is what Matt. 22 is all about.) The improperly dressed wedding guests were rejected because their first consideration was not for the King and His banquet. They were there, but their hearts did not properly respond to the Feast.

 

[Tigg]

If I were going to meet the current POTUS, I’d probably wear grubby green fatigues, combat boots, a black beret sporting a big red star, a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer and sickle on it, and be smoking a cigar----just so he’d feel at home.

How funny, but it drives home a point. At least your first consideration would be for the one you’re meeting and not yourself!

 

[PatriceA]

You know the only time I have looked at what others wear at Mass? After reading these threads!

It’s a good question though- why are folks noticing what other parishioners are wearing at mass? Our hearts and minds should be on God.

Perhaps if we find our minds wandering onto superfluous things we should focus back on what is really important.

 

[Giacomo222]

I know that I find it quite distracting when women show up for Mass dressed in too little clothing. It’s hard to concentrate. And yes…Church should not be a place for occassion of sin!!

 

[antonivs]

Really? He doesn’t care??

If we dress because it’s all about MY comfort, MY convenience, MY propriety, MY lackadaisical attitude, MY apathy and MY choice to dress as I please, just what does that say about your “heart?” That you are focused on “Self” first and the **Celebration **second; that the Event you are attending deserves no better consideration than that YOU not be put out. If God, indeed, looks at the “heart,” then the heart needs to be properly inclined toward the Invitation itself and understand what the **Occasion **is that we are celebrating (which is what Matt. 22 is all about.) The improperly dressed wedding guests were rejected because their first consideration was not for the King and His banquet. They were there, but their hearts did not properly respond to the Feast.

If you think the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22 is talking about what we wear to Mass I strongly disagree with your interpretation. It is talking about the Kingdom of God and that man not wearing the wedding garment is the one whose heart is not right with God.

Go ahead, focus on the external. Judge me all you want, I know my heart is in the right place and I am focused on what is truly important.

 

[Tigg]

If you think the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22 is talking about what we wear to Mass I strongly disagree with your interpretation. It is talking about the Kingdom of God and that man not wearing the wedding garment is the one whose heart is not right with God.

Go ahead, focus on the external. Judge me all you want, I know my heart is in the right place and I am focused on what is truly important.

Only YOU can judge your motivations and no one has said or implied any differently. Please note the word, “IF!”

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Go ahead, focus on the external. Judge me all you want, I know my heart is in the right place and I am focused on what is truly important.

Then, if you’re a woman, go braless in a way that it shows, and have your jeans cut low enough to see your thong. Guys can wear dirty t-shirts and see-the-crack jeans. And both can wear flip-flops. After all, your heart is in the right place and you’re focused on what’s truly important. No need for any standards at all.

Now, go to Rome and try to have an audience with Christ’s Vicar on earth dressed like that. Your heart is in the right place and the Pope, of all people, ought to know that.

 

[CMatt25]

Wearing jeans and a t- shirt or shorts is about laziness and lack of respect for what’s happening at mass.

Ishii

I think it best if I let God judge my and anyone else’s respect. He didn’t tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best to achieve eternal life.

 

[comrade1789]

I think it best if I let God judge my and anyone else’s respect. He didn’t tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best to achieve eternal life.

I absolutely agree, we cannot judge a person based on what they are coming to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass dressed in. However, let me ask you to approach it this way:

The Mass is not an event where we come to express ourselves, but where we come to commune with our Lord and Savior. We are coming to his banquet, the Holy Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God with His Bride: you and me and the whole Church. We are coming to participate in a Divine and Heavenly Sacrifice. While you share with us that God did not “tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best,” he did in fact severely chastise the man who came to the King’s Wedding Feast for His Son, dressed unworthily Matt 22:2-14; Lk 14:16-24.

While this parable applies to spiritual matters, the literal approach is also significant, if you have the ability to dress nice in respect for what you are participating in, than you are obliged to do so. Willfully dressing in a sloppy, immodest or poor manner when you have the ability to dress worthily reflects poor theology and an ignorance of the significance of the Liturgy one is participating in.

If, God forbid, tomorrow a loved one should die, would you not want to dress in your very best at the funeral which is held IN MEMEORY or COMMEMORATION of your loved one? Or at a very special wedding, say you were invited to the wedding of a great leader (I know, we are greatly starved as a planet in this arena, but imagine a great President was getting married and you were invited), you wouldn’t dress like a slob or immodestly, would you? Now realize that at Mass we are celebrating and entering into the Life, Death and Resurrection of the King of kings, Lord of lords, of the greatest Gift of the Eternal Father: Himself.

I challenge all people who think it is right and fine to dress down for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to begin to set aside their own wills in this matter, and to seek rather to add something to the Liturgy of their Lord and King by dressing up for Him, showing Him with your bodies and the choices you made from the moment you got up in the morning to the moment you picked out what to wear, that you were going to make an effort to glorify Him with all that you have. Do this, and you will not fail to receive more out of the Blessed Sacrament, because you are making yourselves more open and receptive and cooperative with the grace being extended to you. When we dress nicely for the Mass and show all reverance, it is also a powerful act of evangelization and catechesis for the newcomer and the lapsed Catholic. It adds to the Liturgy by showing everyone else that what is happening is worthy of all respect and awe, and it acts as a temporal or material aid, in a way a sacramental, in helping the entire congregation gathered for the Mass to spiritually participate in a worthy manner.

 

[antonivs]

Then, if you’re a woman, go braless in a way that it shows, and have your jeans cut low enough to see your thong. Guys can wear dirty t-shirts and see-the-crack jeans. And both can wear flip-flops. After all, your heart is in the right place and you’re focused on what’s truly important. No need for any standards at all.

Now, go to Rome and try to have an audience with Christ’s Vicar on earth dressed like that. Your heart is in the right place and the Pope, of all people, ought to know that.

My jeans are clean, don't have holes in them, nor are they revealing.  There is a difference between casual and lewd.  But by all means, take things to an illogical extreme.  It must be all or nothing.

Given YOUR PREMISE that the Pope can see into my heart, then yes, I am sure he wouldn't be put out by my clothing.  I'm not so sure about some of the people around him, however.  I probably wouldn't be let within 1 kilometer of His Holiness.  After all books are best judged by their covers.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

My jeans are clean, don’t have holes in them, nor are they revealing.

Fine. Dress like that to a job interview or to court. And, if you like, get married in those clothes.

After all books are best judged by their covers.

If you think that people don’t judge you by your outward appearance, you are wrong.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

I absolutely agree, we cannot judge a person based on what they are coming to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass dressed in. However, let me ask you to approach it this way:

The Mass is not an event where we come to express ourselves, but where we come to commune with our Lord and Savior. We are coming to his banquet, the Holy Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God with His Bride: you and me and the whole Church. We are coming to participate in a Divine and Heavenly Sacrifice. While you share with us that God did not “tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best,” he did in fact severely chastise the man who came to the King’s Wedding Feast for His Son, dressed unworthily Matt 22:2-14; Lk 14:16-24.

While this parable applies to spiritual matters, the literal approach is also significant, if you have the ability to dress nice in respect for what you are participating in, than you are obliged to do so. Willfully dressing in a sloppy, immodest or poor manner when you have the ability to dress worthily reflects poor theology and an ignorance of the significance of the Liturgy one is participating in.

If, God forbid, tomorrow a loved one should die, would you not want to dress in your very best at the funeral which is held IN MEMEORY or COMMEMORATION of your loved one? Or at a very special wedding, say you were invited to the wedding of a great leader (I know, we are greatly starved as a planet in this arena, but imagine a great President was getting married and you were invited), you wouldn’t dress like a slob or immodestly, would you? Now realize that at Mass we are celebrating and entering into the Life, Death and Resurrection of the King of kings, Lord of lords, of the greatest Gift of the Eternal Father: Himself.

I challenge all people who think it is right and fine to dress down for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to begin to set aside their own wills in this matter, and to seek rather to add something to the Liturgy of their Lord and King by dressing up for Him, showing Him with your bodies and the choices you made from the moment you got up in the morning to the moment you picked out what to wear, that you were going to make an effort to glorify Him with all that you have. Do this, and you will not fail to receive more out of the Blessed Sacrament, because you are making yourselves more open and receptive and cooperative with the grace being extended to you. When we dress nicely for the Mass and show all reverance, it is also a powerful act of evangelization and catechesis for the newcomer and the lapsed Catholic. It adds to the Liturgy by showing everyone else that what is happening is worthy of all respect and awe, and it acts as a temporal or material aid, in a way a sacramental, in helping the entire congregation gathered for the Mass to spiritually participate in a worthy manner.

Hear! Hear!

 

[antonivs]

Fine. Dress like that to a job interview or to court. And, if you like, get married in those clothes.

If you think that people don’t judge you by your outward appearance, you are wrong.

Oh yes, I am well aware. Thanks.

 

[CMatt25]

While you share with us that God did not “tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best,” he did in fact severely chastise the man who came to the King’s Wedding Feast for His Son, dressed unworthily Matt 22:2-14; Lk 14:16-24.

While this parable applies to spiritual matters, the literal approach is also significant, if you have the ability to dress nice in respect for what you are participating in, than you are obliged to do so. Willfully dressing in a sloppy, immodest or poor manner when you have the ability to dress worthily reflects poor theology and an ignorance of the significance of the Liturgy one is participating in.

If, God forbid, tomorrow a loved one should die, would you not want to dress in your very best at the funeral which is held IN MEMEORY or COMMEMORATION of your loved one? Or at a very special wedding, say you were invited to the wedding of a great leader (I know, we are greatly starved as a planet in this arena, but imagine a great President was getting married and you were invited), you wouldn’t dress like a slob or immodestly, would you? Now realize that at Mass we are celebrating and entering into the Life, Death and Resurrection of the King of kings, Lord of lords, of the greatest Gift of the Eternal Father: Himself.

I challenge all people who think it is right and fine to dress down for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to begin to set aside their own wills in this matter, and to seek rather to add something to the Liturgy of their Lord and King by dressing up for Him, showing Him with your bodies and the choices you made from the moment you got up in the morning to the moment you picked out what to wear, that you were going to make an effort to glorify Him with all that you have. Do this, and you will not fail to receive more out of the Blessed Sacrament, because you are making yourselves more open and receptive and cooperative with the grace being extended to you. When we dress nicely for the Mass and show all reverance, it is also a powerful act of evangelization and catechesis for the newcomer and the lapsed Catholic. It adds to the Liturgy by showing everyone else that what is happening is worthy of all respect and awe, and it acts as a temporal or material aid, in a way a sacramental, in helping the entire congregation gathered for the Mass to spiritually participate in a worthy manner.

If to God the parable applies to spiritual matters, then that is more reason for me not to compare God’s expectations on what clothing we wear with what secular society’s expectations might be when we meet Oueen Elizabeth or President Barack Obama or attend a loved one’s funeral or job interview. Actually I’ve attended a loved one’s funeral where many came casual and I was just glad they came.

I also get much more out of the Mass when I am there in comfort instead of wishing I were out of my “dress” clothing and shoes. But to each their own I guess as to what they prefer to wear. I’m certain God who knows the heart doesn’t reject the disciple in sandals more than he rejects the rich man in a suit. Neither of which can walk on water. God bless and peace.

 

[Tigg]

My jeans are clean, don’t have holes in them, nor are they revealing. There is a difference between casual and lewd. But by all means, take things to an illogical extreme. It must be all or nothing.

But Rich’s description of the current “fashion” is what we see every single day and what passes as casual dress in this new age culture - it is commonplace whether one is at the grocery store or in Church. I saw a teenage girl at last Saturday’s evening Mass whose short “shorts” were “shredded” in front on one leg and this is what church leaders are blushing at in the OP.

 

[comrade1789]

If to God the parable applies to spiritual matters, then that is more reason for me not to compare God’s expectations on what clothing we wear with what secular society’s expectations might be when we meet Oueen Elizabeth or President Barack Obama or attend a loved one’s funeral. Actually I’ve attended a loved one’s funeral where many came casual and I was just glad they came.

I also get much more out of the Mass when I am there in comfort instead of wishing I were out of my “dress” clothing and shoes. But to each their own I guess. God bless and peace.

There is nothing more that can be said to you then. You have determined to stick to your own argument and will, which is common to most people who take the Liturgy loosely. With your logic, we should also get rid of the kneelers because they take away from our comfort. Get rid of the kneelers, better get rid of the Eucharist, the One for Whom we kneel, for Whom we dress up, for Whom we are even present. There are those who go to Mass, and those who participate in Mass; those who uphold or even enhance the Liturgy, and those who degrade and even steal from the Liturgy; those who understand and acknowledge that something and Someone significant is taking place, and those who have yet to reach that point; those who only take, and those who seek to give. When we dress nicely, we help not only ourselves, but others to realize the importance of the Mass. When we fail to dress nicely, we are telling others that what is happening isn’t that important, and so we also steal from them a true knowledge and reverance. Mass isn’t just about you and what you can get out of it and your own comfort. That is exactly what it is not.

 

[ishii]

I think it best if I let God judge my and anyone else’s respect. He didn’t tell the rich man he had to dress in his Sunday best to achieve eternal life.

Well, I am glad to see anyone attending mass and certainly am more happy to see them at mass than angry that they are dressed shabbily. I don’t want this to be misinterpreted. I think our society has become too lax about our dress standards. Look at the kids in high school - the girls look like hookers. Its about respect and making an effort and I think that’s the point. Its not that we have some ability to impress God by what we’re wearing. But we show respect to the interviewer. We would dress up for a wedding, a graduation, or to go to a nice restaurant. Why can’t we do the same for mass? Its about a modicum of respect, and it takes only a little effort. How hard is it to dress in a pair of slacks and wear a shirt with a collar?

Btw, I think this question as part of a larger question about behavior in mass in general. We all need to show more reverence at mass. In addition to dressing modestly and respectfully, we need to stop the loud conversations inside the Church, laughing and carrying on, during the kiss of peace, and most of all, focus on what’s happening while in the communion line instead of waving to all of your friends on the way up.

Ishii