ritual timelessness

in one of my classes today i heard some very good things from the prof about the meaning of vestments at our ritual liturgical celebrations.

the priest wears the alb and the chasuble, he said, to signify a ritual atmosphere. for a moment, at mass, we let go of the mundane and the commonplace, and enter into a different dimension, a dimension that is not necessarily unrelated to our everyday existence, but one that is richer, grander, and eternal: a dimension that is spiritual, into which all of us are called.

by seeing our ministers in vestments, we help ourselves transition to this richer, spiritual reality. we have entered the sublime, we have entered a ritual that speaks of the eternal and the future--a future which is present in the here and now, but which finds its ultimate fulfillment in the parousia. wow!