Black strips on the white alb
At his ordination last week Benny wore an unusual alb. Here he explains why.
Some people asked me, after my ordination, about the meaning of the black strips on my white alb, thinking that it wanted to reproduce the talith (the Jewish prayer shawl). For this reason I have been asked to write a few lines of explanation.
The model of the white alb with two black strips in the arm, on the front and on the back, is not an invention of mine. It shows up in a Byzantine mosaic from Ravenna (Italy).
From there I understood that this was the liturgical habit of that age, and I loved the contrast of black and white.
The idea to add a spiritual meaning on this came out of an encounter with a Moroccan young man who told me of the custom of the Jewish priests of a small island in Morocco to sew at the edge of their whit trousers a black strip to commemorate the destruction of the temple.
When the time to make my alb came I asked the tailor to make one for me according to this model, in order to signify two things: the mourning for the lack of peace in our land, and the suffering because of the lack of unity of the Church. In these strips are contained the tears of all the families who have lost their members, and the pain of all those who strive to see the Church unified, according to the heart of the Lord.
I want to remind myself that also in our joys our world is still suffering and that especially at liturgical prayer time, I have to carry all this suffering and entrust it to God.
I promise that the day we will see peace in our Holy Land, and the Church unified, my alb will become full white as full will be our joy!
