Seasons
■■
Advent
□■ Christmas
■
Epiphany
■
Lent
■
Holy Week
□■ Easter
■
Season After Pentecost |
As God has flooded earth and sky with color, so the Church
has sensed the symbolic use of color in its worship. As dominating
colors in nature change with the seasons of the fourfold year, so in the
Church Year there is a structured change in the colors of the Eucharistic
vestments, the liturgical colors. This sequence of liturgical colors
has a principal role in Christian visual education, in teaching the Gospel
through the eye.
□■ WHITE,
GOLD, symbolizing joy, purity and truth, is used on the Sundays and
open days of Christmastide and Paschaltide; on all Solemnities except
Pentecost and Holy Cross Day; Feasts, Memorials and Votive Masses of the
Blessed Virgin, the angels, and saints who were not martyrs; Nativity of St.
John Baptist, Confession of St. Peter, Conversion of St. Paul, Independence
Day and Thanksgiving Day; Ritual Masses for Baptism and Matrimony, and
optionally for Confirmation; and Votive Masses of our Lord, the Holy Trinity
and the Eucharist, and optionally for Masses for the Dead. Gold is sometimes
used in place of white on major feasts.
■
RED, the color of fire and of blood, is used on Pentecost; optionally
on Palm Sunday and Good Friday; feasts and Votives of the Passion of our
Lord and of the birthday feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists; feasts and
votives of the Martyrs; Votives of the Holy Spirit; Ritual Masses for
Ordination and optionally for Confirmation.
■
GREEN, the color of living things and of God’s creation, is used on
the Sundays and ferias in the season after Epiphany and Pentecost.
■
VIOLET, symbolic of penitence and expectation, is used in the seasons
of Advent and Lent; for Votives penitential in nature or for the gift of
healing; for Penance and Unction; and may also be used for the offices and
Masses for the dead, and on Ember and Rogation Days.
■
BLACK, representative of deep sorrow, may be used for Good Friday and
for offices and Masses for the dead.
■
ROSE, penitence permeated with joy, may be used on the Third Sunday
of Advent and the Fourth Sunday in Lent.
■■
BLUE, in the lighter shades, is sometimes used on feasts of the
Blessed Virgin. In the darker shades of indigo (Marian Blue) is frequently used
during Advent.
© The Ashby Company |
Special Colors
■ Sorrow
■
Penitence With Joy
■
Feasts of BVM |
