🎉God bless you Fr Brendan for having the courage to speak out. We need you so much. I have you in my prayers.😊

Morning all. Lived in Qatar for a bit, it could get very hot! The parish priest banned shorts in the house of God. Asked to show respect for Jesus. That was the end of that!

Growing up in England with Irish parents, i always had Sunday best clothes for going to Mass. Now at 56, i am saving up to buy a suit to wear for Mass.

You are so right Fr

Hi Father. You shoulda been in a Hollywood movie. Highly entrtaining prose! Love yer rants!

I do love grumpy! They always tell the truth in a funny way...

Icouldnt agree more Father Brendan. A few years ago i started wearing dresses to Mass and as i attrnd mostly daily Mass it meant i was wearing dresses everyday. I am 52 and except for parties never wore dresses. Never understand my darking mum never wearing trousers. Now i do. I love my dresses and have managed to get my hubby out of shorts at Mass still working on the ties 😂 but he does like a hat

The "fashions" nowadays, are horrendous, especially among young people. They seem to have NO idea what modesty is, and they look atrocious in their skin tight clothing. Father, with all due respect, YOU shouldn't be the ONLY Priest talking about this. We should be hearing it from the pulpit aswell.

You are so right Fr. God bless you.

Thank you, Father. My husband said it. "Women just aren't beautiful anymore." And neither are men. Just shabby.

I wear my Sunday best everyday to daily Mass. Dreeses and skirts for this lady! Also I wear a veil or hat to Mass. I am 55 years of age. Ladies, be ladies again

I agree. Things have gone to the dogs altogether as regards appropriate dress. Time someone said it! 👏

So much truth here !

I wear shorts here in Lyon in the summer where the temperature can reach 38 even 40 at times, but not in my wildest dreams would I wear shorts to Mass. It's a very rare sight, especially on Sundays (Latin Mass ) Totally agree regarding Liturgical vestments 👍🏻

Father, if I were in the same room with you, I WOULD be wearing a fine fabric modest but elegant dress, and just enough make-up to neutralize my dead-tired-looking face. I’d compose myself in a dignified manner. All good. Until, that is, you had me wheezing and snorting with laughter. You ARE spot on. Keep firing away.

I wear a full suit to mass only on Christmas and the Easter Triduum, and I always feel grievously overdressed, as a young man. Very few men are dressing like this, they all wear outdoors jackets and jeans mainly. It’s a grim state of affairs.

Bravo - couldn't agree more

Amen, Father!!!

Well said Father. We must all make an effort

Plain elegance, something obtainable for the rich & poor, let's bring it back!

Excellent homily, Fr Brendan. If a person is attending Mass, they should be well dressed and neat and presentable. Outside of Mass? Ideally youd like to see people being well dressed, clean and neat. A lot of people do wear polyester/acrylic sports clothing, as "leisure wear". Its easier to clean and you dont need to iron it. So they tell me. Great presentation Father, keep the faith.

I have a priest friend who has the most beautiful vestments. No polyester. One is for Blessed Mother's feast days and is lined with blue silk. Problem is most think he is being vain. St John Viennay said a sloppy vested priest equals a sloppy Mass. Once, he was transferred to another parish we then began to appreciate his reference and beautiful Masses when his replacement said short Masses and sloppy vestments. John Viennay also said a priest cassock should by tattered but his chasuble Gold. Also, it is interesting to see women (especially Extra Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion) in tight pants, sleeveless tops, with cleavage showing but they have on their mantilla so they think all is good and modest.

Also yoga pants should be eligible for excommunication

God bless

I couldn't agree more! As an American I am appalled by our appearance. Everybody looks like a bum anymore. I remember going to Mass with a hat and gloves as a young girl. Now.... we a lucky if someone has a dress that meets the top of their knees. It's the same with hospitals. Years ago nurses used to wear their caps. You could basically tell who was who. Now you don't know if you are talking to the janitor or the head of a department. I was thrilled when I finally got my cap, now you are looked at as an odd-ball if you wear it.

I agree with him as regards the Dail deputies.

Fully agree with you

The purity of Our Lady "But it is undeniable that the Virgin radiates a sense of purity which generations of Mexican women have been inspired to imitate. Writing several centuries ago, Father Florencia, S.J., noted this extraordinary effect produced by gazing on the sacred image(Our Lady of Gaudulupe): "Let all women, whatever their rank, find in the picture of this Sovereign Lady a figure of purity and a mirror of modesty: let them imitate her decorous reserve and the fitness of her most chaste attire. From this picture, as from a reflecting crystal, there reverberate as many tokens of honour and spotlessness as of light and splendour. Let them learn from it what they should reproduce in their own lives, how they must correct their dress, and what they must forego so that they may give no scandal." Page 52 The Wonder of Gaudulupe by Francis Johnston The Origin and Cult of the Miraculous Image of the Blessed Virgin in Mexico. reference: Estrella del Norte, p. 166.

Shorts and t-shirts on men, and tight leggings on women. All of it has to go. Show some respect for Christ and the Mass.

Well you're certainly not predictable father!

I’ve even seen a Eucharistic minister wearing hoodies and T-shirts emblazoned with FCUK. I would be crossing the church in order to receive from someone else.

Amen Fr. Amen!

9:02 God bless you Father and your weekly insights on all things Catholic. May I add a slight correction to your discussion this week.The relaxation of dress code you cited actually relates to the Senate and not to the House of Representatives. Good news! The Senate reversed its relaxation policy and the Senator in shorts had to amend his dress code accordingly!

This is an important statement, I completely agree. May I suggest then, can priests start wearing their cassocks again and dress appropriately? God bless

I understand completely with you. I dress the tabernacle. But morally speaking I'm heartbroken by the amount of sacrilegious communion being received. Please start giving more attention to the sacrament of reconciliation..

How very true Father. I am approaching 70 and find it so depressing looking at all the track suits, often unwashed, or even worse, shorts and football shirts, and this on Sunday and at mass!! Gone are the days when men were in suits, ladies in modest dresses and heads covered with a mantilla, looking so elegant. We definitely live in sartorially challenged times.

Fr Brendan I grew up in a little fishing village The men got there nets and boats blessed The fishermen had a sense of pride regarding the 12 apostles … mass on Sunday dressed in Sunday best now fishermen are seen as scum bags by society the department What happened. It was a beautiful way of life had meaning I miss it so much What do you think ???? I hope in the great mystery we all fish fish again fathers grandfathers daughters sons God bless

Great style at university graduations these days

As regards women going down the same road, they've both gone down that same hand in hand!

Yesterday here it was 47°C. But it's always long trousers and best elegant clothes to meet the King of Kings at Mass. Call me a hypocrite if you want.

The joy of the Lord will be my strength. Would love to hear Gods word being preached. What does He say on this topic .

powerfull as always fr brendan i agree with dress should be dress in respect and reverence for jesus sacramental vestments for lay people should be used elegance for men amd women going back years ago looked descreet it needs to change for glory of GOD

I love this rant as our culture becomes increasingly course and vulgar so it is reflected in our dress male and female

Don’t you think this lack of dignity and respect is a symptom of something much deeper?

Ah I agree hate shorts on men outside of sport even then not sure and leggings on women 😬

St Thomas Moore wore a hair shirt underneath his day garments to be closer to Christ

Fr. the US Senate dress code was restored after several days of complaints about the suspension. I'm in America, by the way.

"Meet me tonight in Atlantic City". (Springsteen)

I've thought this for years! Stupid shorts and ubiquitous tee shirts especially the ones that make you a walking advertisement. People were hot in the 1960s and 70s and even 80s too! When I go to Mass I feel like I'm going to a royal court to see the King, which we are. In past centuries even the poor had great style. Time for men to be men again. Besides, shorts were always gay.

As an American I can tell you I hate baseball caps; perhaps they are okay for work in the sun but that is it. As for men in shorts, no problem when it is hot, or for exercise, in my opinion. As for more formal dress, blame the women, they set the trollop look at mass with the odd skin-tight leggings over the whole body look and the total reveal skirts and such. I believe the homosexuals refer to it as a spandex felony. As for men at mass in shorts, I can sympathize with it since: A: Jesuits have been known to say mass in nothing but a stole and shorts outside on a hot day, and B: I grew up when you fasted from midnight, and even on the hottest days wore wool everything to mass with a white shirt and tie and often ended up in the balcony where it was even hotter, and you could watch people pass out during mass. This culminated one very hot day when I wore cutoff jeans to mass and to which the pastor took note and some surprise, while he remained oblivious to the nun giving homilies while he sat on his arse and I got to listen to her wisdom, all while she drove around moving immigrants in a car my family could not afford and looking to get a kitchen in the rectory rehabbed at a cost of half what I paid for my house. I don't think shorts are the problem, the women are the problem, they set the bar. The reality is that as the women took off their head coverings the whole tenor of mass went downhill as they jettisoned Latin, chant, and catechesis, and modesty and then they went for the fuzzy doofus Jesus if they mentioned Him at all. I recall asking myself in the late 60's and early 70's why I bother to go to mass at all, they never mentioned Jesus, they did their level best to remove every trace of the sacred in words, hymns, decor and such. The need is for modesty in dress, chastity in behavior, and care in speech and deportment fitting to the situation at hand. All of which we should endeavor to elevate. However, I am not hopeful in the near term when important spiritual matters needing to be addressed are supplanted by loud harpies in Rome and elsewhere, and where going to the margins means not taking honesty with you, and last, but not least, when a pope is made from a religious order that should have been suppressed 40 years ago. An order that to me is on the cutting-edge level of insanity and steeped in only heterodoxy on a good day, and much worse on an average day. One can see their dance of scandal everywhere. The deliberate obfuscation of words, the open lack of honesty about what is going on is a sin, pure and simple. The pope plays politics and agendas using the smoke of confusion to obtain his ends. A decent father is above all honest, trustworthy, clear in his teachings to his children and while he always has an open door and is always respectful of his children, he does not pick favorites, nor impugn entire nations of Catholics while he cavorts with enemies of family life, enemies of marriage, and those advocating subversion of the faith. Dialogue, open door, outreach, accompaniment, all good, all fine, silence about truth, silence about teachings, silence about repentance, NOT what a father does. That is the work of an abuser, that is the work of a Peter who does not listen to Paul. Christ may have "scandalized" some of the religious of His day, the pope is not Christ, nor is his day that of Christ's, nor is He called to obtain the millstone as his reward. Christ's little ones are ALL of His children.

Den duine an t-éadach!

Everything in 'Made in China'. Don't know what has happened.

Two exceptions to the baseball cap rule should be the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Angels.🤣

I love the way Irish people pronounce the word "ugly". There's something about it that makes the thing so described seem not just ugly, but absolutely hideous.

Absolutely agree.How about tights and a short top yuk anywhere.

Interestingly Father, the 1917 Code of Conon law 1262 did prohibit men from wearing hats during mass, however, the 1983 code of canon law didn't make a declaration concerning hats. Because the 1983 code abrogated the 1917 code there's no official stance. Having said all that, I vehemently agree that the dress of today is uninspired.

And athleisure wear should be kept for atheletes❤️🙏

Spot on! We've let our standards slip. Everywhere in the West. Mainstream fashion is a joke, not a hint of elegance. Professional uniforms are a joke - think doctors, nurses, railways employees now and then. And the worst of them all are the new Garda uniforms.👎

Worse still, men who wear shorts 365 days a year even in the dead of winter. Hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, skinny jeans. I often buy vintage clothes and the material and cut is always superior and beautiful, and modestly elegant.

the worst are those men who wear there baseball caps on during dinner ?????????

Holy Gospel according to St. Μatthew Ch. 6 : 28 (Douay-Rheims Bible). 28 And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. 29 But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. 30 And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

My pet hate is plastic rosarys you know those nasty horrid things. I know I know. But really.... It bugs me..

There's a tyranny of informality present now, metastasized over the past several decades, and in lockstep with this troubling state - the likes of which are a mark of, and should appeal solely to, the immature at heart - a dearth of genuine respect for the fellow man. Too many people simply aren't growing up anymore, and to some extent why should they want to when they see the comportment of their elders? No one is a winner in this stupid game.

im prerty shabby, im slways takingvti dog pit fir a walk after mass.I try to make up for it by kneeling genuflecting dingingbon tine , out loud and kissing the feet of the virgin mary afer communion , and paying each week

Can we push poverty and simplicity more than we push suits at mass.

D'aul vestments are probably shipped in from China, chape aul shite 😅

This pope will probably excommunicate any man who DOESN'T wear shorts, especially to Mass.

Flip flops