Page:Low Mass Ceremonial (Burnett).djvu/61

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festival of the Holy Innocents when it does not come on a Sunday. If "Black-letter" days are observed, the red-coloured vestments should be used on festivals of Martyrs, and white on festivals of Confessors and Virgins.

Reverence for our Lord demands reverential care of the things used in his service. In any case waste is sinful, so that proper economy is called for in the manner of wearing and of keeping the sacred vestments. The priest should exercise due care in handling the vestments when putting them on and in taking them off; also that he does not, when vested, press or rub them against the vesting table and the edge of the altar-mensa. When not in use, the silk vestments should be carefully folded (if need be, with paddings, to avoid creasing) and laid away in shallow drawers, one for each set, or else hung up on frames in a closet.

All the linen vestments and the altar-linen, most especially the corporals and purificators, should be laundered frequently, or at least whenever there is need, so that nothing soiled shall be in use at the altar.

The sacristy as well as the altar itself, should be kept clean and tidy, and free from litter of any kind.


Of the Biretta

At a low mass, where it is the custom of the place, the priest as he approaches the altar from the sacristy and as he returns to the sacristy from the altar, wears the square cap called the biretta. When this is done, the server should stand at the priest's right hand when they first come before the altar, and when they are about to leave the altar, in order that he may the more conveniently receive and give back the biretta. Having received the biretta, the server should lay it down in some convenient place on the Epistle-side of the sanctuary, but not on the credence.


Of covering the Sacred Vessels after the Communion

Anciently the chalice, at this point in the service, was regarded as a symbol of the holy sepulchre, and the paten as a symbol of the stone that was rolled away from the entrance to the sepulchre. The priest and the people who have received the holy communion have partaken of the

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