Looking at Advent through Rose Colored Vestments

(Because it's true, you know: Mary really wanted a girl!)

As I was looking at the picture of this wonderful little church which I placed on this blog, I realized that I had missed an opportunity to show off our new Rose Colored Vestments.

They were made last year by Colleen Hintz (CLHintz@aol.com) and commissioned by our Altar Guild in memory and honor of Ruth Prinz, who left a very handsome bequest to their ministry.

What you see on the left is a Holly sprig, often associated with the Nativity of our Lord as a foreshadow of his Most Holy Passion.

On the right is a Glastonberry Rose, a bowl of which, even as we speak, sits on the Queen's dining room table. (That would be the Queen of England, darlings.) There is great mythology about the Glastonberry Rose - the bloom of which reportedly sprung from the staff of St. Peter who, upon landing in the Faire Isle of Britian to establish Christianity, stuck his staff in the ground. A splinter from his staff nestled itself in the ground and, lo, how a rose 'ere blooming!

There is also a monastery there in Glastonberry, the most delicious rumor about which is that the bodies of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were/are buried there.

Here's the really lovely thing about this set. It, like the woman it honors, is not only beautiful and cool, it is very, very practical.

It reverses to a brick red theme for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. You can see the Jerusalem Palm which adorns the stole on both sides. Cool, eh?

The material is a lovely, light-weight duplioni silk.

I'm told that the silk is made by forcing two silk worms to inhabit the same "cell," which results in the irregular but beautiful and original pattern to the 'bumps' in this raw silk material.

This chasubel and stole are complimented by a fully reversible frontal, lectern and pulpit hangings, as well as a burse, veil and offertory plate centers.

So, not only is this set beautiful, it is practical.

We use the Rose Vestments, of course, on Advent III and Lent IV, and the Brick Red Vestments for Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

There, now, I feel much, much better having told you all of that.