From a priest reader (edited):
With Lent about to begin I have a question regarding Laetare Sunday and what vestments I should wear for the TLM that day.
I will be celebrating a Sung Mass in the EF for Laetare Sunday. I know that Rose vestments are permitted for that day in both forms of the Roman rite.
I have a set of Rose vestments, handmade for me by a parishioner at a previous parish.
However, this set, being made long before I even anticipated offering the EF, has no maniple or chalice veil. It is very unlikely that I would be able to have a matching maniple and veil made between now and March 22.
So the question is: would it be permissible to celebrate the TLM on this occasion "sine manipulo" (since there is none), or should I just bite the bullet and wear violet?
I was always grateful that the Roman shop Gamarelli never stopped making the full set of Roman vestments, with all the necessary pieces.
In any event, I think I would use the rose vestments, what you have available. You can use a white or purple chalice veil. I suppose you could go without the maniple or use a purple maniple.
Just provide an explanation for the people. This could be a good moment for talking about the liturgical colors. Who knows! Perhaps a couple folks will pony up for a full set or for the missing pieces.
I think it is a shame when priests think they can’t use beautiful old vestments because a piece might be missing. For example, some dopey guy years ago threw away maniples or chailce veils for a glorious set, keeping the stole and chasuble.
Use what you can and build up what is missing.
Brick by brick…. veil by veil.. maniple by maniple…
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Reverend Fathers,
I found myself in the same situation last year [and this year, too, since with the economy circling the drain, etc. I can’t afford to re-purchase another Rose set]. Anyway, I have a Gothic rose set with everything, except the maniple. So, I just wore the voilet maniple. No fuss, no muss. And I didn’t have any of the “liturgical police” who go ape over the slightest thing complain since they knew why I had made the “substitution”. Blessings!
Father, can you not just use your full set of purple? [Sure you can, but that is not really my point, for reasons I gave. We know that rose is an option.]
While I love the rose, I would think a complete set is more important than an incomplete set just so you can wear rose.
Either way, thanks for saying the TLM! You should be admired.
Having dealt with the “no veil” problem for both rose and black vestments for the Novus Ordo, I wholeheartedly recommend using a white linen veil. It looks better and reads to the eye as liturgically neutral, rather than patched together/mismatched. I do not know the TLM well enough to have anything but an aesthetic opinion, which may be totally wrong, but for NO, white linen is a great and proper answer for the veil.
I don’t think a violet chalice veil would be a problem especially if there is a tabernacle veil (which would be violet whether one wears rose vestments or not).
I say use the violet, if there are multiple sets available choose on that is less showy and therefore less of a clash.
We once inverted a black maniple that had a gold colour inside to use with a beautiful gold chasuble, and had to take a faux gold stole to use. Not perfect, but it worked
Fr.Z excellent advice,I would like to donate to this priest so either veil and maniple may be made or gotten new.
I once assisted at a Mass where Father used a stole in place of the maniple.
It kept falling off his arm though
I understand Mass in the Extraordinary Form should be celebrated as it was at the time of the Council and just before the Novus Ordo was introduced. According to my recollection, the use of the maniple had been discontinued, as had the Leonine prayers after Mass, and there had also been a shortening of the prayers at the foot of the altar. As I say, that is my recollection and I could be wrong…..but I don’t think so.
Having worked with priests over the years some suggestions:
If you have a maniple missing from a vestment set but have a stole, have the stole cut down to a maniple and wear another stole. It is the maniple that shows.
If the chalice veil and burse is missing make a chalice and burse to match tabernacle veil That way your altar is dressed to match but the chasuble, stole and maniple will be different.
A way to pay for vestments that some of my priests have used successfully is to go ahead and order the vestments. When they arrive the priset puts them on display with a donation box and a sign of how much is needed to pay for them. He also tells his parishners that the new vestments will not be used until they are paid for. On the first day they are to be used he blesses them with great ceremony before Mass. What usually happens is that the priest not only gets enough money to pay for the new set but often get offers to pay for additional vestment sets.
The first sung EF Mass I conducted a choir for was Gaudete Sunday, 1989. We searched the land (Australia) high and low in the months beforehand for a rose maniple. Alas, we had to make do with violet.
All went well. But since then, I have harboured a secret ambition to open a liturgical vestments shop called, naturally …
“The Rose Maniple”
Great idea Judy! I must offer my clients that suggestion.
Hugh, unfortunately you didn’t know me in 1989: I did have that rose maniple ;)
Michael Sternbeck.
Father McMahon,
Since 1984’s Quattuor abhinc annos it’s been specified that the 1962 Missal was to be used for most traditional celebrations. Ecclesia Dei afflicta and Summorum pontificum followed that standard. The shortening of the prayers at the foot of the altar was later (1965?) and the deprecation of the maniple even later still (1967).
For dcs: The chalice veil need not be vilet if a rose veil is available
RE Fr. McMahon’s comment, the Mass as celebrated in most parish churches the week before the Novus Ordo went into effect looked almost identical to what followed the next week. Certainly there were major changes in the text but the big shock had taken place on the First Sunday in Lent in 1965. The years between then and the Novus Ordo four and a half years later thre were years of continusl change until the Rite was unrecgnizable
Regarding your protocol on rose and violet colors, and stoles and vestments and veils: I highly doubt Jesus cares about all of this drama in the sanctuary. And I’m sure Mother Teresa is turning in her grave thinking about her unattended brothers and sisters living with leprosy and AIDS. Both would rather you put this pinched, fussy energy into serving the poor and the downtrodden. God bless all of you.
Samuel J.Howard
Thank you for clarifying the dates in question. Looking back on those days, the changes came so suddenly and frequently that, at least in my mind, the details have become confused.
Can you answer this? When and why did the biretta go out of fashion?
“Can you answer this? When and why did the biretta go out of fashion?”
The biretta was made optional by the Codex Rubricarum of 1960, saying that the biretta could be worn by the celebrant when it was convenient to do so.