Q: I have a question about the instruction in HCWEMOM to wear a white stole/cope during Exposition and Benediction, given that at #79 in that text, it says, “…account should be taken of the liturgical seasons, so that these exercises are in harmony with the Sacred Liturgy from which, in a sense, they derive…” So why would the priest who presides at daily Mass during Lent, wearing purple, then change to white for Exposition/Benediction? Especially given HCWEMOM’s overarching intention to tie these devotions to the celebration of the Mass (#82, eg, “care should be taken that in exposition of this kind worship of the Most Blessed Sacrament should shed light on the relationship that it has with the Mass…”, not obscuring Christ’s desire, in instituting the Eucharist, to “be close to us as food, medicine, and comfort”). So why the instruction to wear white, specifically, in your opinion? The color white seems to elevate the parish’s practice of Exposition above their practice of daily Mass, during those seasons where the priest will be wearing purple, just given the typical implication of the color white for liturgy. And elevate the “use” of the Blessed Sacrament for purposes of devotion above its “use” as food and medicine.
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A: I believe that #92, which calls for a white stole, is envisioning exposition completely apart from Mass, and that #94, which envisions exposition following immediately after communion at Mass, presumes that the priest does not change his Mass vestments while placing the consecrated host in the monstrance.
If the priest is exposing the Blessed Sacrament at the conclusion of a daily Mass during Lent, he does not go to the tabernacle to get the host. He has an extra host on the altar that he consecrated during the Mass, and he places that newly consecrated host in the monstrance—all the while wearing his purple vestments for Lent.
If adoration is extended, if he leaves for a while, and if he returns an hour or more later to repose the sacrament, I think then it makes sense for him to wear white for benediction and reposition.
But if the entire ceremony takes place apart from Mass—say an evening celebration in a parish where the Mass took place in the morning—then he wears white throughout—even during Lent.