Is Sunday dress too casual?
Over on Facebook, Joyce Donahue posted a link to a story about our increasingly casual dress in society. Societal norms, of course, influence the way we worship.
I think about this when I’m at church and I see people dressed in shorts and old t-shirts. I’m not a big “coat and tie” prude about Sundays, but shouldn’t our garb for worship be a step above whatever we would wear to clean out the garage?
Whenever I’ve discussed this in public before, someone always replies, “God doesn’t care what we wear.” Well, leaving aside the question of how one can know what God cares about in regard to dress, I don’t think that’s the issue. We aren’t going to church for God’s sake in the first place. We are going for our own sakes and the for each others’. Our effort to “dress up” a little says that we take ourselves, each other, and our worship a bit seriously.
I’d love to know what you think, because I wonder about this a lot.
Tags: poll
My thoughts on this are a mixed bag – I believe nothing that anyone wears at church should distract the assembly from participation and attention during the Eucharistic Liturgy – inappropriate clothing for me would include jeans, especially “torn” jeans, cut offs, muscle shirts, t-shirts wth “words”, what normal people would consider immodest, etc. However, here in the desert soutwest, bermuda shorts and capris are almost a necessity – and if they’re not “tacky”, I have no problem with them.
I came back to the Catholic church from a charismatic Pentecostal church where we used to lie on the floor for hours. We didn’t dress up at all. When I came back to Mass, I remember a sermon in which the pastor preached about dressing for church, using holy water and genuflecting. I bristled at the thought that he would tell me what to do. I had a fine relationship with God and didn’t need to do all these things. Then I thought about a conversation I had with my children about visiting at other friends homes. We agreed that we would have a better time if we followed their rules and had good manners. We would clean up and dress up to see our friends. I realized then, that if I agreed to follow the guidelines of the church, I would enjoy my visits each week. I do feel different about going to church when I put on special clothing. I like to remind myself of the promises made at my baptism when I use holy water and I genuflect to show my humility before the God of creation. It’s really not so hard!