OMETHING THAT STANDS OUT looking through the Campion Missal is the proliferation of beauty. The church is huge with lots of ornate details. The vestments are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
Some Catholics could go to Mass every Sunday and never come across anything that elaborate. Such furnishings and vestments would be expensive, not to mention difficult to clean! Efficiency and practicality hold sway.
Simple polyester chasubles make sense when you think of all the hundreds of parishes and priests to equip, but if you consider each priest is an individual laying down so much of his life for Christ and His Church, then surely we can make some sacrifice to see he is suitably clothed to enter the Holy of Holies.
The stories behind vestments can be enthralling. Once you start noticing them, it opens up a whole new avenue for distractions at Mass, especially ad orientem when the design on the back of a chasuble is especially intriguing.
This Christmas season, consider contributing to the Vestment Fund for Priests and Seminarians
