"Because I had decided ahead of time that I was going to look my best for Mass, I got up earlier to leave time to fix my hair and put on some makeup. … I found myself with a few extra moments before we left (a big change from the usual pre-Mass fire drill) and was able to look over the readings and prepare myself to receive the Eucharist," blogger Jennifer Fulwiler wrote recently at NCRegister.com.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes about modesty, "Modesty is decency. It inspires one’s choice of clothing. ... Modesty inspires a way of life that makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies" (2521-2524).
"At the Mass, the difference this new ensemble made was startling," Fulwiler continued. "In a surprising-but-not-surprising turn of events, I found that I paid more attention to God and less attention to myself now that I was dressed well. … Taking the extra time to choose my attire carefully reminded me of my dignity as a woman and a child of God; and, most powerfully, wearing my favorite pieces on Sunday hit home the message on both a conscious and a subconscious level that I would never find an occasion more special than this one."
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From the time we were small children, my mother insisted that we should look our best when attending mass. The clothes we wore should be clean, pressed and the best we had. She taught that by taking the time to present ourselves properly to meet Jesus Christ at mass was one small way of giving him glory and acknowledging him as our King and Saviour. After all, you wouldn’t wear shorts and flip-flops when meeting the Queen of England, so why do people wear such things when meeting the King of all Creation?
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