Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Wearing Stoles Over the Chasuble

ROME, JUNE 21, 2011 (Zenit.org (http://www.zenit.org)).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

Pursuant to our article on wearing the stole over the chasuble (see June 7 (http://www.zenit.org/article-32780?l=english), a reader from Nairobi, Kenya, asked: "Why should the color of an alb be white? Can the seasonal colors of Advent, Lent and ordinary time be used in making the alb?"

The short answer is no, at least as regards the Latin rite. Alb derives from the Latin word for white, and it has always been that color in our liturgy.

The alb derives from the white tunic worn as a basic garment by most men in Roman times. As the empire fell under barbarian influence, laymen abandoned the tunic in favor of leggings and similar garments. The more conservative clergy conserved the tuniclike habit for both ordinary and liturgical use.

In time, the color of the alb led to its association with purity (along with the cincture) and with the white garments of the saints as found in the Book of Revelation. This can be seen from the prayers the priest may recite while putting on these vestments.

As he puts on the alb he says, "Purify me, Lord, and cleanse my heart so that, washed in the Blood of the Lamb, I may enjoy eternal bliss."

As he ties the cincture, he says: "Lord, gird me about with the cincture of purity and extinguish my fleshly desires, that the virtue of continence and chastity may abide within me."

The cincture, however, unlike the alb, may correspond to the color of the liturgical season or festivity.

Some non-Latin liturgies have vestments with a function analogous to the alb, such as the Byzantine sticharion, which can be of several colors, including blue and gold.