(2 minute read)
I love the color hot pink, and I have for a long time. I also like other bright colors. When I wear bright colors, I feel happy. I also love the calm blue color my bedroom walls are painted. We call one of the chairs in our house: “The colorful chair.” It’s super comfy, but also really fun and colorful.
There are all kinds of theories about why and how color affects our moods, our feelings, and our thoughts. We talk about our feelings with colors—the blues, green with envy, red-hot anger. (The 2015 film Inside Out capitalized on the connection between color and emotion.) Certain institutions use certain color paint on their walls to be calming. One mayor in Albania transformed his city by painting buildings in bright colors. Crime went down and morale and community in the city went up. [ https://allthatsinteresting.com/tirana ] It’s safe to say that color is very important.
Through the liturgical colors of the year, the Church gives us a tangible, visual way to enter into the seasons. Green for ordinary time, red for martyrs and the Holy Spirit, white for big feast days like Christmas, Easter, and more. Purple for Lent and Advent.
Just seeing the color on the altar and of the vestments can help us focus on the theme of the season that we’re in. In Lent, the color purple reminds us of repentance. When we see the purple around us this season, it reminds us that there is something special going on in the Church right now. It helps us think about coming back into a close relationship with God, and trying to remove those things in our lives that distract us from Him. For sure, we need to repent from our sins, but we can give up something not sinful in Lent to remind ourselves that we love God more than we love things. Or to try to get back into the realization that God is worth our love so much more than even good things in His creation. Check out {link} for more information about why purple is the liturgical color of repentance and how we can enter into this season of Lent as families.
What step can you take this Lent to remind yourself that God is Number One?
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