While it is no longer the practice for all priests to offer prayers while vesting for Mass, many do offer these "vesting prayers." The prayers are a good occasion for them to be enriched with a profound humility and willing availability to act in the very Person of Christ at the Holy Sacrifice. In this series, we look at each vesting prayer and its corresponding vestment, as an intimate insight into the spiritual lives of priests at their most vulnerable moment every day, helping all the rest of us also to understand just who we are before God and neighbor.
PRAYER 6 – "Ad stolam" (Prayer used for the stole)
"Redde mihi, Domine, stolam immortalitatis, quam perdidi in prævaricatione primi parentis: et, quamvis indignus accedo ad tuum sacrum mysterium, merear tamen gaudium sempiternum." ("Restore to me, O Lord, the robe of immortality, which was lost in the transgression of our first parents, and, inasmuch as I approach your Sacred Mysteries in an unworthy manner, nevertheless, may I be made deserving of eternal blessedness.")
The word "stole" is taken from Latin, which in turn is transliterated from the Greek. It means "robe." Today, for liturgical functions, it is a slender length of material which hangs around the neck and down the front, possibly overlaid left to right and right to left so as to signify a cross, and is used at Mass and in the administration of all the sacraments, not to mention at burials, during processions, at Benediction, and for the blessing of sacramentals. It's the priestly vestment par excellence. It is understood as a sign of holy orders, but for the ironic reason that the priest is seen to be first in line to be like everyone else, the first to say that he is the worst of all sinners, the first to rejoice in being humbly thankful to the Lord for being numbered – unworthy as he is – among the children of God.
Let's all just admit something: none of us is better than anyone else, not better than anyone who lived in the "dark ages" of the past, not better than anyone living in "less privileged" conditions than ourselves today, not better than the very "worst sinner" we can imagine, the rapist, the arsonist, the genocidal terrorist, the wife-beater, the one shoving drugs down the throats of children, the cop-killer, the road-rager, the extortionist, the liar, the parasite, the bully. We, of ourselves, are not better. We've all crucified the Son of the Living God with our sin. If the priest is special, conspicuous, it is only because he must, in donning the stole, be the example for us of the one who best confesses that, given the circumstances in life, he would be able to commit any and all sins. Anyone who thinks that he would be a saint without the grace of God no matter what his personal life-story might have been growing up is an arrogant fool, a cynic, a hypocrite – all sins which the priest must admit that he would also be ready to commit given the circumstances. As we will see below, the stole proclaims the priest to be, personally, the prodigal son in all his sin and starvation for fellowship with the pigs, but also in all his repentance and humble thanksgiving.
The father in the parable (Lk 15:11-32) had his prodigal son clothed in the first stole, the first robe, but not the first robe in the closet, nor the best robe simply due to textiles, color spectrum or lack of production imperfections. Just as we have set phrases in our culture that last through the centuries, such as "star-spangled banner," just so was the phrase "first robe" already cemented into the culture for many centuries when Jesus spoke this parable. "First" really was first – being worn as it was by Adam before original sin, a spiritual robe of light and immortality, of grace and friendship with God. In clothing his prodigal son in the "first robe," the father of the parable was forgiving him, making him again his son, again an integral part of the family.
When the priest wears this stole, he is not congratulating himself for being ordained, or flaunting some sort of power over others. Instead, he is shouting out that if he were to be without God's grace, he would be dissolute, living a life without salvation just like the prodigal son, out with the pigs, an outcast of society, despised and hated, and himself hating God and neighbor. He is saying that he would come up with a calculated plan to merely exist in the world on a scrap of bread from someone he once called his father even though he no longer had any hope of being his son. He is saying that he is overwhelmed at the goodness and kindness of Jesus, and so rejoices to be forgiven, to once again be a true son, that he abandons his conceited plans so as now to stand, unworthy as he has been, in the gleaming robe of immortality. He wants everyone to see Jesus' goodness and kindness provided to us in all the sacraments through the Sacrifice of the Mass.
One might think it is a bit of stretch to connect "the robe of immortality" of this prayer with the "first robe" in the parable of the prodigal son, however nice that would be. However, a glance at the commentary of the early Fathers of the Church on this parable reveals many references to the robe of immortality that was lost in the transgression of our first parents. Appropriately, this robe of newly received sanctifying grace mentioned in the parable is the origin of the baptismal robe. Yet, in preparing himself to offer the Sacred Mysteries, the priest still feels himself to be utterly unworthy, and rightly so. He is to act in the Person of Christ at the consecrations. In his anguish, he begs that he nevertheless "be made deserving of eternal blessedness." It's was God's choice, after all, that he was called to stand before everyone in this stole as the example of forgiven sin.
Wearing this stole at the Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest will rejoice to wear it while absolving sins, and will rejoice even more in taking the physical stole off so as to be the prodigal on his knees, receiving absolution of his own sins, gaining the spiritual robe of immortality. This prayer brings it all home to the banquet of the Last Supper put on by the prodigal's father, a great way to prepare for Holy Mass.
Father George David Byers is administrator of Holy Redeemer Parish in Andrews.
While it is no longer the practice for all priests to offer prayers while vesting for Mass, many do offer these "vesting prayers." The prayers are a good occasion for them to be enriched with a profound humility and willing availability to act in the very Person of Christ at the Holy Sacrifice. In this series, we look at each vesting prayer and its corresponding vestment, as an intimate insight into the spiritual lives of priests at their most vulnerable moment every day, helping all the rest of us also to understand just who we are before God and neighbor.
PRAYER 7 – "Ad casulam" (Prayer used for the chasuble)
"Domine, qui dixisti: Jugum meum suave est et onus meum leve: fac, ut istud portare sic valeam, quod consequar tuam gratiam. Amen." ("O Lord, who has said, 'My crossbeam (yoke) is easy and my burden light' – grant that I may be so enabled to carry it as to follow after your grace. Amen.")
We conclude this series with these comments on the chasuble, the large poncho-like vestment which covers the body of the priest and the other vestments. We most often see the Gothic style, with the chasuble being about as wide as it is long. The Roman style bears the nickname "fiddleback" since the tailoring enabling greater movement of the arms with the often heavily embroidered and even bejewelled vestment gave the appearance of a fiddle to the front of the vestment, called "the back" inasmuch as the priest faced the Sacrifice on the altar along with everyone else.
This prayer for the chasuble is a realistic encouragement to the priest after his having prayed the rather intense prayers for the other vestments. It recalls Jesus' words in Mt 11:28-30: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my crossbeam (yoke) upon you and learn from me, for I am befriending and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my crossbeam (yoke) is easy, and my burden light."
Imagine that! A "jugum" or crossbeam, an instrument of torture and death, carried in torture to one's death, is here called easy, a burden that is light. If we take a look at the Shroud of Turin, one might get the idea that such a crossbeam was heavy enough to smash our Lord's face right into the pavement. After some rebellion at the shock of being volunteered to carry the cross with Jesus, this prayer becomes that of any Simon of Cyrene.
The prayer has it that it is our Lord's grace which enables us to carry such an instrument of torture and death inasmuch as we follow after His grace, inasmuch as we follow Him. Our Lord commanded us many times not only to take up the cross, but to follow Him by the strength of His friendship. The priest says the consecrations in the first person singular, acting in the Person of Christ. When Jesus lays down His life in giving His Body for us, in pouring out His Blood for us, the priest has to be ready for that eventuality for himself at any time.
The other meaning for "jugum" is yoke, as in that wooden construction snugly fitting over the shoulders of a pair of oxen, distributing the weight of the extreme burden evenly, something not possible for a mere harness. The emphasis in the prayer, however, is neither on the crossbeam-like yoke, nor the burden that follows behind. All attention is placed on the Lord's grace, His befriending us in this manner. The priest comes close to the Lord with the carrying of the cross. In the Sacrifice of the Mass for which this prayer prepares the priest, he is to be on the cross.
The yoke has often been the symbol of marriage, and, in this case, with the priest acting in the Person of Christ, with the priest reciting the marriage vows of Christ in the first person singular – this is my body given for you, my blood poured out for you – the priest is also being married to the Church. Christ is the Bridegroom of His bride, the Church. Jesus' wedding vows redeem marriage which was so very compromised by original sin, before which it was much clearer that male and female, as God created them, united in marriage is the very image of God. Jesus' wedding with His bride, Holy Mother Church, cannot be symbolized by a woman-priest. A lesbian marriage is not what God ever intends with creation or redemption. Priests are men called by God to lay down their lives for the Church, married to the Church, which they love with all their heart, mind, soul, with everything they are.
The chasuble, the wedding garment of the priest, the grace of our Lord, is able to shine out from even the otherwise most inept, most unworthy of sinners. It's our Lord's goodness and kindness which does that. What a great prayer of encouragement in preparation for offering Holy Mass.
One last note. I'm guessing that the family name of our bishop, the Most Rev. Peter Joseph Jugis, is an adjectival derivative of the verb "jungo," referring to being yoked always together by a crossbeam, a priestly name indeed, one surely reminding him of our Lord's goodness and kindness.
Father George David Byers is administrator of Holy Redeemer Parish in Andrews.