St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, MA

It must be Liturgical Fashion Week at Abbey-Roads:

The Holy Rood Guild.
The good, the bad, the ugly - mostly just bad.

So I said the Holy Father's vestments were as bad as this stuff. How protestant does this crap look? It is all de rigeur for American clergy. I'll bet the designer at Spencer liked Benedict's ensemble - or maybe not - they can be pretty elitist at St. Joseph's.

I was a novice at New Melleray - both abbeys are Trappist/Cistercians of the Strict Observance. Spencer was considered the more artistic, intellectual of the abbeys - when I resided at New Melleray that is.

Spencer produced the venerable Basil Pennington (now deceased) with the abbot, whose name I cannot recall, who invented "centering prayer" - a form of prayer that is pretty much associated with "quietism".


Spencer also gained notice through a network or PBS special on monastic life a decade or so ago. At the time, the monks intervewed reminded me of a couple of St. Paul Seminaries rectors and spiritual directors we had in the last few decades - before the 'reform of the reform'...not impressed.

Some secular priests have this idea that vestments and liturgy from all contemplative monasteries is the epitome of liturgical correctness. (They obviously have had good retreat experiences. I still maintain many liturgical abuses found their nascence in certain monastic communities - standing around the altar for Mass, being one of them.) Granted, Spencer was a tad more culturally elevated than New Melleray, yet I wasn't impressed on my many visits there. The Trappist ideal is pretty much dead, as far as the lay-person's perception of the vocation goes - the original Cistercians seem to be more reformed, that is traditional, than the Trappists - or rather - the Cistercians never deformed as the Trappists. The 'Merton' celebrity, as well as his 'monastic experiment' pretty much contributed to this phenomenon - along with Vatican II of course.

Anyway - presented here is some of the schmaltz they design as liturgical vestments.

You have all seen this type of vestment.

What's with the 'yoke' of 'faux embroiderie'? I hate that.

No, it's not Polish.

Irish? Maybe.

Tacky? Rather.

Feminine? Decidedly.

What is so wrong with Roman vestments?

Why all the novelty and innovation after centuries of good design? I think the model in the last design is asking, "So, like I should wear dis schmata? Oy!"