The Protestants sure beat the tar out of us on this

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dumspirospero

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Is dressing appropriately for Mass a thing of the past? I go to two Churches…one of them is the Parish Cathedral and the other is St. Agnes where I go to enjoy the TLM. At the Cathedral, I see people dressed better than at any of the other parishes in my diocese, except for St. Agnes…however, I would say only 10% of them dress reverently at The Cathedral. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, I consider dressing reverently to be the following: Men–1)suit or some close variation such as a dress shirt, tie, and slacks. Women–A nice, but modest dress (mantilla’s optional).

At St. Agnes, I would venture to say that probably 90-95% of the people dress reverently…but that is one parish out of I don’t know how many…which is very sad…What is happening to us people??? Why do we not pay God the proper respect and dress appropriately anymore??? People stare at me when I go to Mass at other parishes and I am wearing a suit…like I am doing something wrong. Outside of St. Agnes, I see people wearing rock n roll shirts, shorts, very short dresses, very tight clothes, t-shirts, wallets with chains, disgusting piercings, etc…It really disgusts me.

Now on the other hand, I own a restraunt, so I get to see a large array of protestants come in and eat on Sunday evening and on Wednesday evenings…They are all dressed impeccably. The guys are all wearing suits or some type of dress shirt with slacks and the women are all dressed modestly in dresses or some other modest attire. I hate to say it, but this is one category where protestants are kicking our butts.
 
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dumspirospero:
Is dressing appropriately for Mass a thing of the past? I go to two Churches…one of them is the Parish Cathedral and the other is St. Agnes where I go to enjoy the TLM. At the Cathedral, I see people dressed better than at any of the other parishes in my diocese, except for St. Agnes…however, I would say only 10% of them dress reverently at The Cathedral. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, I consider dressing reverently to be the following: Men–1)suit or some close variation such as a dress shirt, tie, and slacks. Women–A nice, but modest dress (mantilla’s optional).

At St. Agnes, I would venture to say that probably 90-95% of the people dress reverently…but that is one parish out of I don’t know how many…which is very sad…What is happening to us people??? Why do we not pay God the proper respect and dress appropriately anymore??? People stare at me when I go to Mass at other parishes and I am wearing a suit…like I am doing something wrong. Outside of St. Agnes, I see people wearing rock n roll shirts, shorts, very short dresses, very tight clothes, t-shirts, wallets with chains, disgusting piercings, etc…It really disgusts me.

Now on the other hand, I own a restraunt, so I get to see a large array of protestants come in and eat on Sunday evening and on Wednesday evenings…They are all dressed impeccably. The guys are all wearing suits or some type of dress shirt with slacks and the women are all dressed modestly in dresses or some other modest attire. I hate to say it, but this is one category where protestants are kicking our butts.
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Granted the Protestants in general may dress better, but they do not always dress reverently coming from one who has lived all over the US (and in the Bible Belt). I believe it largely depends on the denomination and pastor. A lot of Catholics have lost reverence for the Church and the Sacraments, but remember that reverence reflects the interior life of the individual. If someone has little respect for the Church’s teachings outside of the Mass, why would we expect them to show reverence in Church??? Thanks and God Bless.
 
Very true…I agree with what you are saying…It’s just that all the protestant Churches around here I see the people dressed nicely and they are filled every service…I just wish we could pack our Churches for every Mass and people dress reverently when they enter the House of The Lord.
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slinky1882:
Granted the Protestants in general may dress better, but they do not always dress reverently coming from one who has lived all over the US (and in the Bible Belt). I believe it largely depends on the denomination and pastor. A lot of Catholics have lost reverence for the Church and the Sacraments, but remember that reverence reflects the interior life of the individual. If someone has little respect for the Church’s teachings outside of the Mass, why would we expect them to show reverence in Church??? Thanks and God Bless.
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I’d rather have the fullness of truth than some Armani suit anyday, thank you very much!

DU
 
Personally, I try to dress up as much as possible without being too “showy.” The reason being is I want to show my reverence for God, but not be a visual distraction to others at Mass. I only wear the suit for special days like Christmas or Easter, but usually would wear a dress shirt, tie, and slacks. Otherwise, it’s a nice polo shirt with a pair of khakis.
They are all dressed impeccably
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You know, I’m really tempted to say Protestants have to make up for what they’re missing with fancy clothes, music, etc… I sometimes watch TCN or TBN(Trinity Broadcasting Network), both Protestant channels. After watching multiple shows, I noticed how much more glamorously dressed and filled with make-up some of the Protestant show hosts are compared to a the modest low key coat-and-tie appearance of say Scott Hahn on EWTN. I’m not saying all Protestants make up for what they dont have (for example, the sacrements) with clothes because I’m sure there are some who genuinely dress to show their respect for the Lord. Just remember though, 2 Cor 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight (ESV)”
Dei gratia,
Greyhawk
 
I go to mass dressed as myself. I went to protestant churches dressed as myself.

Most protestants in the UK don’t dress impeccably. They worship in the clothes they would wear to worship at home. Although I did see one man who wore a very posh suit to lead worship. As soon as he had finished leading worship and put his guitar down he went downstairs and changed into jeans and a jumper for the rest of the service.

For me personally, dressing up for God would be a falsehood, a lie. I would be going to mass dressed up as someone who isn’t me. For others, they may dress up out of reverence. For me it would be a pretence, a sham.

Ever hear the story of the man who was excluded from church because his clothes weren’t right? I have seen a homeless man thrown out of a church for not looking respectable.

Can you imagine people’s attitudes if John the Baptist showed up at church one day? Was his attire reverent. (or even worse, Ezekiel shows up in the period when God had told him to wander around naked as a prophetic sign).

I would much rather see inner reverence at mass - like people praying, not chatting, before mass. Like people praying after mass with the eucharistic presence within - rather than quitting the building even before the recessional hymn finishes. Like coming to see God in his house and being polite enough to remove one’s coat before eating the meal. It’s not as if the church building is chilly.

Is there any evidence for people in apostolic times dressing up specially for mass?
 
Some are saying that interior truth and attitude is more important than how we dress. But this is to posit an invalid choice. We do not have to choose between how we dress and what we believe.

Few of us would attend an important function, such as a wedding or graduation, dressed in a casual manner; yet in recent years we have come to think it is ok to attend the House of God and participate in the offering of Our Lord’s sacrifice and the receive Our Blessed Lord into our bodies, dressed in the most casual and sloppy manner imagineable. We need to remind ourselves what worship is all about and Who it is we are worshipping. I would love to see a return to taking special care how we dressed for attending church, such as our grandparents used to do.
 
it would be nice to see more reverance in mass, but it would be just as nice for these same people dress w/ a little more respect for themselves,

sometimes i wonder if it’s mass or a topless bar!
 
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dumspirospero:
Is dressing appropriately for Mass a thing of the past? I go to two Churches…one of them is the Parish Cathedral and the other is St. Agnes where I go to enjoy the TLM. At the Cathedral, I see people dressed better than at any of the other parishes in my diocese, except for St. Agnes…however, I would say only 10% of them dress reverently at The Cathedral. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, I consider dressing reverently to be the following: Men–1)suit or some close variation such as a dress shirt, tie, and slacks. Women–A nice, but modest dress (mantilla’s optional).

At St. Agnes, I would venture to say that probably 90-95% of the people dress reverently…but that is one parish out of I don’t know how many…which is very sad…What is happening to us people??? Why do we not pay God the proper respect and dress appropriately anymore??? People stare at me when I go to Mass at other parishes and I am wearing a suit…like I am doing something wrong. Outside of St. Agnes, I see people wearing rock n roll shirts, shorts, very short dresses, very tight clothes, t-shirts, wallets with chains, disgusting piercings, etc…It really disgusts me.

Now on the other hand, I own a restraunt, so I get to see a large array of protestants come in and eat on Sunday evening and on Wednesday evenings…They are all dressed impeccably. The guys are all wearing suits or some type of dress shirt with slacks and the women are all dressed modestly in dresses or some other modest attire. I hate to say it, but this is one category where protestants are kicking our butts.
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Hi dumspirospero,
Maybe 4 years ago, I sat down to eat, I was only wearing a pair of trousers, no shirt. As I was saying grace my wife poured soup over my shoulder and chest. It had just come off the stove. She was almost hysterical, but instantly I knew. I washed myself, my skin was only red, no pain and no loss of skin, and dressed appropriately and went back and said grace. Of course I comforted my wife, who is a buddhist and doesnt understand.
Now I am very careful. He is to be respected. We, and myself included just dont have a true perspective of how almighty He is. When we meet Him, we are going to be blown away.
walk in love
edwinG
 
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edwinG:
Hi dumspirospero,
Maybe 4 years ago, I sat down to eat, I was only wearing a pair of trousers, no shirt. As I was saying grace my wife poured soup over my shoulder and chest. It had just come off the stove. She was almost hysterical, but instantly I knew. I washed myself, my skin was only red, no pain and no loss of skin, and dressed appropriately and went back and said grace. Of course I comforted my wife, who is a buddhist and doesnt understand.
Now I am very careful. He is to be respected. We, and myself included just dont have a true perspective of how almighty He is. When we meet Him, we are going to be blown away.
walk in love
edwinG
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Dear edwinG,

I’m not clear on what you’re saying here. It almost sounds from this like she did it on purpose to teach you a lesson. That’s not what you meant, is it?

Alan
 
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weddy:
it would be nice to see more reverance in mass, but it would be just as nice for these same people dress w/ a little more respect for themselves,

sometimes i wonder if it’s mass or a topless bar!
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You have a point there. The way some of the women dress at Mass, especially during the summer, it can be distracting. Especially since from my vantage point at the organ, I can either look at the priest’s back during the Gospel and homily or I can look toward the crowd. Sometimes I just take off my glasses and try to sit in a gaze, not looking at anything, or bow my head slightly and close my eyes during the homily. It’s not like I’m scoping it out, but even my peripheral vision can pick up on some of them.

That said, as long as the clothing is sufficiently “modest,” I think it’s nice for people to dress up but I don’t take that as an indicator of anything internal. Frankly, I don’t know why any given person dresses up or not. I worked for more than 20 years as an engineer in offices from small to bureaucratic and from dress-up to very casual, and I have found people are just as likely to be idiots no matter how they are dressed. Some of the worst hypocrites I worked with were 600 feet off the ground, in a marble tower (Standard Oil Building, Chicago), complete with the Big Boss in the corner having an affair with his secretary.

Alan
 
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AlanFromWichita:
Dear edwinG,

I’m not clear on what you’re saying here. It almost sounds from this like she did it on purpose to teach you a lesson. That’s not what you meant, is it?

Alan
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Hi Alan,
No my wife was shocked. The Holy Spirit poured it out over me. He was teaching me to be respectful.
He also did this to me. About 2 years ago, during a fast, I was drinking tea and I just made a cup and with a full cup, He turned my arm and I poured the full cup over my tie and the front of my shirt. The tie saved me from any heat and everything washed out. I dont drink black tea without sugar in my fasting now. There is a bit more to this story but it is complicated.
I am blessed by His teaching and pruning.
Walk in love
edwinG
 
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dumspirospero:
Is dressing appropriately for Mass a thing of the past? I go to two Churches…one of them is the Parish Cathedral and the other is St. Agnes where I go to enjoy the TLM. At the Cathedral, I see people dressed better than at any of the other parishes in my diocese, except for St. Agnes…however, I would say only 10% of them dress reverently at The Cathedral. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, I consider dressing reverently to be the following: Men–1)suit or some close variation such as a dress shirt, tie, and slacks. Women–A nice, but modest dress (mantilla’s optional).

At St. Agnes, I would venture to say that probably 90-95% of the people dress reverently…but that is one parish out of I don’t know how many…which is very sad…What is happening to us people??? Why do we not pay God the proper respect and dress appropriately anymore??? People stare at me when I go to Mass at other parishes and I am wearing a suit…like I am doing something wrong. Outside of St. Agnes, I see people wearing rock n roll shirts, shorts, very short dresses, very tight clothes, t-shirts, wallets with chains, disgusting piercings, etc…It really disgusts me.

Now on the other hand, I own a restraunt, so I get to see a large array of protestants come in and eat on Sunday evening and on Wednesday evenings…They are all dressed impeccably. The guys are all wearing suits or some type of dress shirt with slacks and the women are all dressed modestly in dresses or some other modest attire. I hate to say it, but this is one category where protestants are kicking our butts.
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Iff the church desires a certain dress code,the church should pay for it.

St Mattress requires no dress codes or thiding.
 
Exactly…people criticizing this post are missing the point…I don’t know anyone who would go to a wedding, funeral, or some other type of social mixer dressed the way that most people go to Mass dressed…It is down right offensive. Someone even mentioned paying parishioners if they wanted a dress code…THat is ridiculous…there shouldn’t be a dress code…People should dress appropriately out of love and respect. I knew a man that was homeless and without a job, and he still managed to have nice clothes for Mass.
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rjs1:
Some are saying that interior truth and attitude is more important than how we dress. But this is to posit an invalid choice. We do not have to choose between how we dress and what we believe.

Few of us would attend an important function, such as a wedding or graduation, dressed in a casual manner; yet in recent years we have come to think it is ok to attend the House of God and participate in the offering of Our Lord’s sacrifice and the receive Our Blessed Lord into our bodies, dressed in the most casual and sloppy manner imagineable. We need to remind ourselves what worship is all about and Who it is we are worshipping. I would love to see a return to taking special care how we dressed for attending church, such as our grandparents used to do.
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…i’m not sure they beat us here… i think people dress more for other people than most other reasons…IMHO…

…Catholic tradition has alway focused more on what’s going on up front than what’s going on with the people that sit beside you and how they dress…

…please don’t mistate this as a defence for not dressing appropriately, it’s not…

…nothing drives me crazier than seeing the side bands of a young ladies thong reaching above her belt line…:eek: ohhhhhhhh, sorry, it is lunch time…


…most decent thong picture that i could find:D

…also, the catholic church was the church of the peasant or poor man if you will… he just didn’t have the wardrobe…

…bottom line? Yes, we can do better… IMHO…👍
 
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Greyhawk:
I sometimes watch TCN or TBN(Trinity Broadcasting Network), both Protestant channels. After watching multiple shows, I noticed how much more glamorously dressed and filled with make-up some of the Protestant show hosts are compared to a the modest low key coat-and-tie appearance of say Scott Hahn on EWTN.
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Oy, please don’t judge Protestants or Protestantism by what you see on those networks :eek:

In dressing up a bit more than my daily routine, I hope to send the message to my children that our time in church is very serious and very special. At the same time, I work with very young children in our Sunday school program, so it would be completely impractical to wear a suit and tie. Therefore, it usually ends up as a polo or oxford with khaki slacks. Our daughters take great pride in their Sunday dresses, and behave accordingly

Now, I’ve attended Mass at one local parish in which the pews are always full, and never have I seen anyone dressing less than what could generally be considered reverent. And I’ve seen young girls at my Protestant church (conservative evangelical, not liberal mainline), and wondered, “How did mom and dad let them leave the house looking like that?”
 
Let me play the other side of the coin here. Isn’t it a bit arrogant to assume that if someone shows up not dressed to the nines that they have no reverence for the Mass? Do you know that person’s monetary situation? Probably not. I tend to dress nicely when I go to Mass but I can afford it. I will tell you right now though, I wouldn’t NOT go if I couldn’t afford to. Too bad if people didn’t like it, I’m not there to impress them. It is not my place, or anyone’s place here to judge someone they don’t know because of how they dress. If they are dressed intentionally provocative, then yes, that would be an issue. But if the person is dressed in what you or I might consider not “nice” or “reverent” maybe we should stop to think that said person might not have the money for the nicer clothes.

I’m not trying to be a pain here, but while I agree that it is all well and good to dress nicely for Mass, you won’t catch me judging how someone else dresses (aside from being blatantly obvious about it) simply because I don’t know what their financial situation looks like. The important part is that they are there in the first place, the dress is vanity.

There are to many variables here, lack of money, maybe the person works in a manual labor type job and doesn’t have time to go home and shower and change and still make it to Mass on time, or any number of other reasons.

But past all this, our attention should be on the Mass, not on how the parishoners are dressed. It’s the House of God, not a social club to make statements through clothing.

So yes, dress nice if you can. But don’t get upset because someone else you don’t even know doesn’t. It’s no one’s business but that person’s.
 
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Greyhawk:
You know, I’m really tempted to say Protestants have to make up for what they’re missing with fancy clothes, music, etc… I sometimes watch TCN or TBN(Trinity Broadcasting Network), both Protestant channels. After watching multiple shows, I noticed how much more glamorously dressed and filled with make-up some of the Protestant show hosts are compared to a the modest low key coat-and-tie appearance of say Scott Hahn on EWTN. I’m not saying all Protestants make up for what they dont have (for example, the sacrements) with clothes because I’m sure there are some who genuinely dress to show their respect for the Lord. Just remember though, 2 Cor 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight (ESV)”
Dei gratia,
Greyhawk
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You know, this I agree with.

Maybe we could look at this another way. We are making mass part of our daily life. Whatever we’re doing, we stop and go to mass, but Protestants make this a whole event. We’ve got the shoes the hat the music, we’re ready for the show… But it’s all just window dressing really. They may have the faith, but they don’t have the Eucharist, they don’t have the depth of THE faith.

I applaud them for their love of the Lord, many sure have that. But I’m afraid they just don’t know what their missing.

BUT that doesn’t mean you should show up in your best beer T shirt, or with your midriff hanging out. You should dress with some kind of reverence and modesty in Church.

Parents, it starts with you. Your kids will take it seriously if you do too.
 
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mommy:
Maybe we could look at this another way. We are making mass part of our daily life. Whatever we’re doing, we stop and go to mass, but Protestants make this a whole event. We’ve got the shoes the hat the music, we’re ready for the show… But it’s all just window dressing really. They may have the faith, but they don’t have the Eucharist, they don’t have the depth of THE faith.
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Actually, we make it every bit as much a part of our everyday lives as you and other Catholics who attend Mass every day. I know more than a few Catholics who are every bit as showy about making Sunday Mass an event as there are Protestants who do the same.

It isn’t just window-dressing, either, unless the faith of the person being observed is questionable. You may legitimately disagree with a person doctrinally, but it is really unjust to call into question the depth of their faith just because you judge them to be showy. Again, Catholics are at least equally prone to the same temptations.
 
I live in the Mojave desert. In the summer, it is far too hot to wear a suit and tie. I wear slacks and a button shirt with a collar to Mass. I then put a very warm choir robe over that. I’m not wearing my wool suit. I’m dressed neatly, cleanly, and modestly. These I think are most important.

Here’s the problem I have: immodest clothing or clothing designed to attract attention. Spagetti straped chamisol looking things on girls or stuff that looks like it should be worn UNDER other clothes, bare midrifts, short skirts, tattoos exposed, flipflops, big clunky heels that call attention to themselves, boys in baggy clothes with the pant’s waists below their buttocks, inappropriate pictures/logos on them…I can go on and on. I think people should be mindful, when they are dressing for Mass, that they don’t want to attract attention to themselves.
 
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