Laetare Sunday...

Today being Laetare Sunday, the famous rose vestments were out. Not only that, but, to make sure that the full set got a thorough airing, our regular 10:30am Mass in the Extraordinary Form was celebrated as a Solemn High Mass.

Wonderful stuff.

Fr. Timothy Finigan, as Parish Priest, was celebrant, Rev. John Harrison was deacon ("on loan" from Chislehurst) and Fr. Bernard McNally was subdeacon.

This year, thanks to the kindness of various parishioners and some pretty nifty needlework by Maria and Hilda (and maybe some others in the team), we saw the debut of a new rose antependium.

In the past, I mistakenly understood the use of an antependium to be a way of covering up a visually unedifying altar, and I thought that it was unnecessary if one had a beautiful altar. Reading through various quotes (courtesy of that wonderful resource on all things liturgical, the New Liturgical Movement blog)on the use of the antependium shows how wrong this idea is - far from being a way of covering up an eyesore, it is because the altar represents Christ himself (indicated by the five crosses carved into the upper surface of the altar, for the five wounds) and it is therefore adorned "as with precious vestments." The stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday, completely exposing the marble beneath the altar cloths, is made much more clearly symbolic of the stripping of Our Lord before his crucifixion.

I love how the Catholic faith pulls together the spiritual and the physical elements of worship - a reminder that we are both body and soul, and that Christ became incarnate for us, so the physical does matter.

As a further bit of symbolism, we had yellow roses on the altar and the sanctuary - it is traditional for golden roses to be given as a mark of the esteem and affection of the Roman Pontiff, and they are blessed on Laetare Sunday. Yellow ones (beautifully arranged by our sacristan, Hilda) were the best we could do, sadly, but it did make me wonder whether the vestiges of this tradition are seen in the preponderance of yellow flowers on sale in time for Mothering Sunday...

More photos can be seen over on my Flickr page.