[sinkspur]

That was a mean-spirited comment, Sink.

It was, and I apologize. It was a stupid remark.

I'm just very surprised that someone would actually go the lengths of purchasing black vestments so that the priest would wear them at somebody's funeral.

Do you ask that the white pall not be placed on the casket? Is the Mass a Tridentine or Novus Ordo?

[VermiciousKnid]

Apology accepted.

My mother's family comes from a decidedly blue-collar area (the coal-mining section of Pennsylvania). There were many parishes there which had literally NOTHING and relied solely on donations from their parishoners. Things are much better today, but our family's tradition lives on.

Sometimes, when things were difficult, the whole family chipped in to purchase (and donate) vestments -- they really aren't that expensive (you can buy a set for about $450), and when you have a large family, the cost gets spread out pretty thin.

The pall is usually white, but with black embroidery on it(and decorating these palls was how I learned to embroider). The Mass is in English, but is almost unrecognizable in its solemnity and language from the Masses I attend here in New York. The Dies Irae is always sung. (I have never heard the Dies Irae sung in New York.)

Regards,