Enthusiasms & Church Linens

Pulling thread on a lavabo towel

With the Traditional Latin Mass pared-down to twice a month due to our resident priest's departure, I have been doing less altar flowers. However, this has afforded me more time to learn something new! This is the first of a series of posts I will write on the subject of church linens.

Anyone who knows me knows that when I start a project the enthusiasm takes over. Speaking of enthusiasm, Ronald Knox wrote "Enthusiasms: A Chapter in the History of Religions" detailing various religions from the 17th and 18th centuries and their eccentric personalities. Although I have never read the book, my octogenarian father- a bibliophile and a wonderful storyteller- has related to me much of its contents with his usual dry humor.

A memorable "enthusiast" was Aimee Semple McPherson, the foundress of the Foursquare Church. In my Protestant Foursquare days, I never heard the tale of Sister Aimee. After mysteriously disappearing, the evangelist resurfaced one day and dramatically rode in on a white horse claiming she had been kidnapped by her male secretary.

Enthusiastic Aimee

With one eyebrow raised in a chestertonian fashion, my father is sure to emphasize that many "enthusiasms" were female-led operations. (Disclaimer: my father is subject to hyperbole. I recommend reading the book yourself.)

In a post Vatican II world, interest and enrollment in altar sodalities has been on the decline and our own Catholic "Enthusiastic Aimees" on the rise. Perhaps if Aimee Semple McPherson had been a traditional Catholic, she would have found fulfillment in properly structuring a flower arrangement or hand embroidering a fair linen.

With an eye to "bringing back" the altar sodality in our rural community, I began my first handmade linen: a lavabo towel.

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Christ the King: Altar Flowers

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Introibo- with Flowers

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