Bulletins

December 17, 2017

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The things we do for love.

For over a thousand years the only liturgical color was white. In Pope Innocent III (1198-1216)

“we find for the first time a determination of liturgical colors for specified days, along with the respective significance thereof. His rules are more or less those still in force today: white as the festive color (and he tries to discover a reason for the white-even in the white of the clouds on Ascension Day!), red for martyrs' days and Pentecost, black for days of penance and for Masses for the Dead, green for days without a festal character (Innocent III, op. cit., I, 65 (PL, CCXVII, 799-802). Cf. Braun, Die liturgische Gewandung, 729-736. Cf. E. G. Atchley, "Liturgical Colours," in V. Staley, Essays on Ceremonial (London, 1904), 89-176.). The sensuous interest in colors and the zeal in explaining their significance were alike manifestations of the spirit of the Gothic period.”

(Jungmann, Mass of the Roman Rite, p 112)

But what about Amaranth? Cerise? Coral? Cyclamen? Magenta? Raspberry? Rose? Salmon? Dare I say it… Pink? The Latin term is “rosacea”. We have come to expect this unusual color to adorn vestments on the third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday, as well as on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday. Fr. Josef A. Jungmann, S.J. makes no mention of the color in The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development. His only mention of the color violet is in a footnote on page 425. We can tell from the citation above that the first special color associated with Advent and Lent was black.

The origin and development of rose as a liturgical color may actually arise from a non-liturgical ceremony that took place always on Laetare Sunday which also was called Rose Sunday, in which the Pope blesses a golden rose and bestows it “upon illustrious churches and sanctuaries as a token of special reverence and devotion, upon Catholic kings or queens, princes or princesses, renowned generals or other distinguished personages, upon governments or cities conspicuous for their Catholic spirit and loyalty to the Holy See, as a mark of esteem and paternal affection” (Rock, P.M.J., “Golden Rose”, Catholic Enncyclopedia, Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909). The practice dates back to no later than the 11th century. Quoting a passage of Isaiah that we all associate with Advent: “There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root” (Is 11:1) Pope Innocent III preached on the occasion that “As Lætare Sunday, the day set apart for the function, represents love after hate, joy after sorrow, and fullness after hunger, so does the rose designate by its color, odor and taste, love, joy and satiety respectively.”

May your roses also bloom in the winter of Advent! God bless you!

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard