A project.
Recently, at Corpus Christi, I recalled the story of the Eucharistic miracle at Bolsena during which a Host bled on a corporal, which spurred the institution of the feast. I got to thinking about corporals. A little light bulb went on.
Some of you might recall that, a couple years ago when I was in Rome, I posted about the wonderful corporals we have for Mass in many of the churches, for example, St. Peter’s Basilica (where I said daily Mass for many years) and at my adoptive Roman parish Ss. Trinità dei Pelegrini.
The corporals are hard starched, so much so that they have a glassy shine and are very stiff. This means that it is extremely easy to spot particles of the Host and lift them with the edge of the paten.
Here are a couple of photos of such a corporal in Rome.
Notice that it doesn’t yet want to lie flat.
Note the shine of the starch.
Folded.
I determined that I wanted to make corporals like this.
First, what is a corporal?
A corporal (from Latin corpus “body”) is a square white cloth of linen upon which the chalice with its paten and host, and also ciboria containing the smaller hosts are placed during the celebration of Holy Mass. The corporal is used whenever the Blessed Sacrament is taken out of the tabernacle, for example for exposition. If vessels are to be purified even – in the Novus Ordo – blech – at the credence table (i.e., not on the altar) a corporal is to be used. Hear that you priests out there? Redemptionis Sacramentum 119 we also see the importance of using the corporal.
Practical use. The first thing has to do with the priest’s intention at Mass to consecrate the Eucharist. Priests are to have the intention to consecrate the matter they know they want to consecrate. The usual way to help with this intention, to help make it explicit, is to place the matter to be consecrated on the corporal which is spread on the altar. If the priest has the intention to consecrate everything on the corporal, he’s good to go. He doesn’t have then to try to hold the specific intention for all the hosts in the ciborium as well. And if there are hosts nearby, but not on the corporal, in a storage box or vessel for another Mass, no problem.
The old De defectibus, section on defects, which was part and parcel of the Roman priest’s knowledge for centuries is helpful in this regard. There is a description of defects of intention:
“For that reason every priest should always have such an intention, namely the intention of consecrating all the hosts that have been Placed on the corporal before him for consecration.”
This is a priest’s moral intention.
Corporals shouldn’t be embroidered. These days they tent to have a little cross, supposedly because the priest is so dopey that he can’t figure out where to put the Host. Well.. these days… hmmm. It also could be there to help the priest get oriented for refolding the corporal properly. No, the corporal should not even have that little cross, but most do. As a matter of fact, the one I worked with for this project has the little cross.
Why don’t I like the little cross? Because in the TLM we place the consecrated Host directly on the corporal and only later slide the paten under it. Particles of the Host could be caught in the fibers of the embroidered cross. So, NO… no cross. When I have a corporal with a cross, I tend to turn it around so that it is at the top, and I place the chalice there.
The corporal’s main purpose, however, along with indicating what is to be consecrated, is to prevent the loss of particles from the Host. Should one fall, as sometimes happens because of it is dry or during the fractio rite, when it is broken, and the priest misses it, the way the corporal is folded will contain the host, as if with a little envelope… ne pereant. Folding the corporal correctly is important. So is way it is placed on the altar. To that end, preserving particles, the corporal is always gently scraped with the edge paten just before the Precious Blood is consumed, or perhaps if necessary at the time of the purification of vessels.
These people, for example, at a traditional web site GOT IT WRONG.
It’s upside down.
Then there are those who – I have seen this – leave the corporal on the altar. Even worse – I’ve seen this – some person preparing or tidying up – picks the unfolded corporal up and moves it or even shakes it. This is bad.
Another important discipline regarding the corporal pertains to all linens for Mass, including altar cloths. Linens should first be rinsed a few times by a priest and the water should go down the sacrarium on onto the ground.
Once you figure out what linens do, practically, these things naturally follow from our love.
Back to my project.
Year and years and years ago, I asked the Giuseppine nuns along the Tiber (who, by the way, to the linens for Ss. Trinità and San Pietro) how they accomplished the shine. Memory served. They use rice starch and Marseilles soap. They spread the corporal, imbued with the same, on glass or the equivalent, and let it dry. The oil in the soap helps to set the starch and allows you to peel the corporal off when dry.
So, my mise en place. The soap is 80% olive oil. Alas, there was only lavender scented at the store. And I was worried about the green coloring… but… this was an experiment to figure out the proportions to use.
Starch.
Shave soap.
Into simmering water.
Start to add the starch in increments. It will eventually thicken.
Yep… a little green.
I bought a sheet of clear acrylic. Eventually I need a LOT more water on the right.
Get it really in there. Pick it up and do both sides well. Remember to put the business side DOWN. That’s the side that will have the desired glassy finish.
Set up to dry.
Next day… when dry… get out your Dremel tool.
Just kidding. I didn’t use my Dremmel.
Peal it off.
Ta daaah! Success the first time.
It has a slight green tint when compared to another corporal.
I will now be on the hunt for high percentage olive oil soap which is both without fragrance and coloring.
Now that I’ve done this once, it will be easy to do again.
I have a bunch more of the starch/soap paste in the fridge. However, I really want a new batch without coloring.
I am extremely pleased with the result and I will, tomorrow, use the corporal for Mass.
UPDATE:
Well look at this! A commentator alerted us about this video from the very Giuseppine I mentioned above. Italian. But it is clear. It looks like the soap they used was blue!
As we know, Benedict XVI issued Anglicanorum coetibus, which provided for whole Anglican congregations to enter into communion with Rome and to retain substantively their liturgical tradition and to be self-governing. Benedict is, of course, the Pope of Christian Unity.
However, that move was built on an earlier foundation, the “Pastoral Provision”. St. John Paul II authorized an Anglican form of liturgy and a jurisdiction for Anglicans who came into the Church.
That was 40 years ago today.
There is a great article about this, and I urge you to look at it, at the site of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society. HERE
One of the reasons why I post this, is because my old pastor at St. Agnes in St. Paul, the late Msgr. Schuler, accompanied to Rome some of the early priests looking for this provision for a meeting with Card. Seper, who was Card. Ratzinger’s predecessor at the CDF. Fr. Barker, one of those priests and now a member of the Ordinariate, was a guest at St. Agnes. I remember him.
This is a great chapter of the Church’s modern history of authentic ecumenism.
One incident can’t tar a whole nation. However, the single incidents keep heaping up and up and up.
The last in just how nuts Germany is.
From LifeSite:
German archdiocese celebrates Corpus Christi with photos of monstrance in profane places
Photos showed the monstrance in a playground, on a trophy room shelf, and on a park bench.MUNICH, Germany, June 15, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In a new publicity stunt for the feast of Corpus Christi (where Catholic celebrate the body of Christ in Holy Communion), the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, headed by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, is promoting photos of a monstrance with a non-consecrated host in profane places like a playground, a trophy room, and a park bench.
The photos are accompanied by short texts without any connection to the meaning of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Taken by two lay ministers employed by the archdiocese, the pictures show a monstrance “in different places of everyday life,” outside of liturgical functions, for instance on a bench in the park, or in what appears to be a beauty salon.
[…]
“A whole series of successes. Some things were easy to achieve, for others I had to try really hard. It’s amazing what I’ve already done and accomplished,” the text stated. “And in the middle of it all, God. He hardly stands out. His message is also inconspicuous: You are good just the way you are. No matter what happens or what you do. I love you.”
[…]
The two lay ministers said their idea for putting a monstrance in profane places came about during a conference in 2019 that discussed “how to speak about God today in a modern and understandable way.”
They did not explain how their photos and texts are supposed to draw people to the Catholic faith, nor did they address the scandal the photos would cause among the faithful.
On Facebook, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising made clear it was siding with the two lay ministers, after several users had criticized the publicity stunt.
[…]
Lay ministers, eh?
Where did they get the monstrance – okay, people can buy monstrances – WHERE DID THEY GET THE HOST?
If they took the Host without the priest’s knowledge, because they have keys to the church and access to the tabernacle, that’s a problem. The pastor’s first duty is care of the Eucharist. He is incompetent and they are sacrilegious thieves.
If the priest knew about this and supported it, then he is imcompetent and should be dealt with severly. The lay people should be instructed and then asked not to function again in what they do.
Any way you look at this… it’s sacrilege.
Do you have some good news for the readership? How are things going with churches where you are? (Good news, please.)
For my part, some of you great people who follow my live-streamed Mass each day sent donations for flowers. I have had terrific luck with these alstromeria. I think today is their final hurrah, for Mass.
Speaking of donors. Some of you have contributed chess boards, pieces and clocks. I would like to get something going with chess here. My interest revived a while back – it seems like forever ago – when I was last in D.C. and at the Army and Navy Club on a Saturday morning. They had a meeting of their chess club and they invited me to play. It had been a really long time but I acquitted myself well. I getting back into it.
Anyway, I have four vinyl boards and wonderful heavily weighted pieces which is quite simply a pleasure to pick up, along with four old fashioned wind up clocks (which they are for when the EMP hits).
Another simple pleasure provides good news, and again, due to the kindness of a reader who sent colatura di alici from my wishlist.
Chop up a clove (or more) of garlic. Put it in a bowl. Chop some parsley. Put it in the bowl. Put a three or four spoons of the colatura in the bowl. You can also add some peperoncino (really hot peppers) or use flakes. Put it in the bowl. Let it all macerate while you cook the pasta. Vermicelli works best for this: you want lot’s of surface for the mixture to cling to. When the pasta is done, drain it very well and toss everything together in the bowl.
This stuff is super fast, simple, and out of this world.
Last night we had another Supper For The Promotion Of Clericalism. There were seven of us clerics and we supped.
Here, by the way, are two of the boards set and ready for play last evening.
There was Campari and soda or Aperol Spritz with salty nibbles beforehand. I made strozzapreti alla puttana siciliana, my variant of puttanesca using homemade caponata. Leafy greens and a garlic vinaigrette with macerated cherry tomatoes. Two 2″ thick rib eye on the big Weber in the courtyard. Cheeses and Honey Crisp apples after and a choice of “Magnum” bars and “bomb pops”. Amaro.
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I will LIVE stream a Traditional Latin Mass at NOON Central Daylight Time (= GMT/UTC -5 and ROME 1900h).
Today: Votive Mass of the Most Holy Trinity
Prayers Added: For the sick
After Mass: Prayer in time of pandemic
propria.org has the texts for this votive Mass HERE
Will you please tell others about these Masses? Will you please subscribe to my channel? HERE
THANK YOU to my flower donors!
Here’s something sure to be of interest to all of you!
Promoted by none other than Jesuit James Martin.
https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/posts/10157078036511496
Dear friends: You’re invited to an online conversation:
Imagine the Future: A Church with Women Deacons
A conversation…Posted by Fr. James Martin, SJ on Thursday, June 11, 2020
You, too, can participate!
The whole text if you don’t want to click those links.
Dear friends: You’re invited to an online conversation:
Imagine the Future: A Church with Women Deacons
A conversation on women deacons hosted by Sister Colleen Gibson, SSJ with Dr. Phyllis Zagano.
Monday, June 15
7:30 pm Eastern
This online event is free, but registration is limited to 500 participants. Register online here, and you will receive a confirmation email with additional instructions to access the talk. You are welcome to share this invitation with friends who may be interested.
https://hofstra.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYsfuGoqzsuGtIsrbdnJKq9svbyASeYMmVa
I hope many of you will benefit from your active participation in this event.
Hurry! It’s limited. Fill up that room!
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I will LIVE stream a Traditional Latin Mass at NOON Central Daylight Time (= GMT/UTC -5 and ROME 1900h).
Today: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
Prayers Added: For dear friends
After Mass: Prayer in time of pandemic
Will you please tell others about this Mass? Will you please subscribe to my channel? HERE
THANK YOU to my flower donors!
In many places, those who frequent the Novus Ordo today will have their Corpus Christi observance. Also, in some places where the TLM is celebrated there will be an “external” celebration of Corpus Christi on this 2nd Sunday after Pentecost.
Either way it is a Sunday. Even as Masses are starting to open up again, I think nearly everywhere people are still dispensed from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass.
It may be that you went to church for Mass. It may be that you heard a sermon via the internet.
Was there a good point made in the sermon you heard at the Mass for your Sunday, either live or on the internet? Let us know what it was.
Also, let us know about church openings and Masses in your area.
I’ve finally gotten serious about Morse Code for CW. My goal: get up to speed with Morse so I can do CW on a an extremely portable QRP rig.
In past summers I had set myself a goal of one license a summer. But I have relaxed and it is time to do MORSE.
Meanwhile, I’m checking ZedNet more often as well. More HERE. And, to get yourself going, WB0YLE gave me a Bill of Materials. A list of what you need. HERE
And this came up on my screen. From the past….
You never know what use we may need to make of radio, especially low power, in the future. For a while now I’ve been thinking about how to network with Catholic hams, even dioceses. Ham radio is useful in emergencies. What if we were faced with The Big Emergency?
Scenario:
nce upon a time… in his Tiny House at the Sheltered Glade, Father stays in touch by CW with the faithful priests and the few Catholic bishops left on the continent through the Catholic net they had prudently formed when everything was hunky-dory.
Before the Collapse.
He carefully transcribes bishops’ brief pastoral letters and sermons along with messages to other priests and faithful in the area, and then relays them to other hams at times and frequencies scheduled by consulting the fifth letter and third number on certain pages of the 1962 Roman Missal. It’s a little maddening to work out the coded schedule, but it has to be done this way.
Father finds it a little harrowing to have the headphones on and to be buried in the static and the flow of the code. You can hear what’s going outside in the world, but you can’t hear what’s going on outside the house. Ironic. Scary, but ironic.
The transmissions are over. Tidying his work space his mind drifts to the day back before the SHTF when he had the bishop out to the Tiny House. He used the Roman Ritual to bless the radio equipment. He could have done it himself, but it’s better to have the bishop see what had been organized and do it himself. It was a beautiful prayer…
God, who ordered all things in creation in a marvelous way, determining even their measure, number, and weight; and who gave man a share in your knowledge, thus enabling him to detect and control the latent forces with which you endowed the things of the universe; be pleased, we pray, to bless + these instruments made for transmitting wavelengths of sound through the air, spreading out in all directions as instantaneously as lightning. Let them carry messages of aid in times of crises, of solace in times of distress, of advice in times of doubt, of light in times of darkness, and thus make known the glory of your name more widely throughout the world that all its peoples may be gathered into the fellowship of your love; through Christ our Lord.
Father shuts down the radio and power source. With practiced speed he secures the door to the lower level punching the code, closes the vault-like door of the ground level storage area and slips on the pre-sorted chest rig and camelbak pack. He double checks his mags and the batteries for the handheld, slings the 5.56 AR-15, and then scans through the ballistic glass windows for a few minutes before closing the steel shutters.
Saftety off. Exit. Scan.
He stands perfectly still, listening. Looking.
Minutes pass.
Nothing out of place comes to his senses.
As he locks the door he recalls with regret – and a rise of the hair on his arms – the smell of the men who were around the corner of the house. And what followed.
The first step away from the Tiny House always gives him the creeps now.
Shrugging his gear into place he sets out with a glance up at the nearly invisible wires of the various dipole antennas strung amidst the branches of the trees.
He points himself toward the Appointed Place for Holy Mass on the Rock By The Stream. It usually takes a full day to get there, Deo volente.
He blesses the stone-piled graves as he moves down the path in the forest. “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord…”.
As he gets in range of the Appointed Place, he should be able to contact one of the hams in the area who will relay his arrival via the GMRS and FRS radios people have. That’s a security hole, but they have to do something to let people know when to gather.
Besides, things have been calm lately but you can’t have people just waiting around.
In the early days there were packs of dogs who weren’t afraid of people. There were gangs of marauders and desperate families and individuals who had survived the chaos, starvation and disease. Then came the true wolf packs.
The individuals and families were thinned out by now, but he had heard there were still some gangs and, as the chaos settled, who ever was “in charge” these days had starting hunting priests again.
“Not this priest!”, he muttered.
There are probably going to be a few baptisms and maybe a marriage or two this time. At least he hopes so. It’s about time they tie the knot and have the graces of the sacraments. Since the Collapse, things have been … intense… for young people and pretty much without the benefit of clergy. Often without any relatives at all, poor things. But a lot of them, the ones who didn’t succumb to despair, found Religion. They have the Faith now. Total disaster helps people sort their values.
This week at the Appointed Place he should also rendezvous with a contact conveying wine through the underground. He is to keep some for his own use and collect messages and news for the net to be broadcast. The messages are one thing, but it always surprises him that the wine gets through. But it does. He had made some from regional grapes but it was better suited for hand to hand combat than Mass. Brutal but valid.
The building project at the Rock by the Stream is going well. Pretty soon they’ll have to think about what to call the chapel. “Should I try to get the bishop to come?”, he mused. “It’s a hike and he isn’t young.”
Mostly, Father didn’t like the idea of the bishop saying that it was time for him to be consecrated. He shivered.
Eyes moving. Not too fast. Stop. Listen. Nothing.
Keep moving.
“O God, Who did cause the children of Israel to traverse the Red Sea dryshod; Thou Who did point out by a star to the Magi the road that led them to Thee; grant to me I beseech Thee, a prosperous journey and propitious weather; so that, under the guidance of Thy holy angels I may safely reach my journey’s end, and later the haven of eternal salvation. Hear, O Lord, the prayers of Thy servants. Bless their journeyings. Thou Who art everywhere present, shower everywhere upon them the effects of Thy mercy; so that, insured by Thy protection against all dangers, they may return to offer Thee their thanksgiving. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Next week it’ll be time again to hike up the Big Rocky Hill with a portable rig and antenna for a scheduled DX contact from “Rome”, wherever “Rome” may be now.
He had an inkling that some big decisions had been made.
Okay, that’s enough of that.
I am still securing some useful items.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
NickD on ROME 26/10– Day 21: fountain: “The sister does not name these Saints that supposedly support her argument. Anyone have any idea about whom she’s talking?…”
on Are things as bad as the seem? Auctores scinduntur.: “When will we banish from the Catholic lexicon “reform” and “renewal”? They serve only the cause of mendacity. Let’s call…”
on Not a huge fan, but the question is dead on right…: “This is not an “apologia pro Iacobo Martino,” but it’s unfair to say, as above, that Tim Busch’s apparent friendship…”
on ROME 26/10– Day 21: fountain: “That’s funny I can’t recall any of the woman saints I have read ever mentioning that they aspired to be…”
on ROME 26/10– Day 19-20:: “I agree acardnal. The dachshunds at Pippo’s always make me smile too. Thank You Father Z.”
on Not a huge fan, but the question is dead on right…: “It’s easy to discipline the obedient child. Reprimanding the one who will oppose you openly and pitch a fit in…” on ROME 26/10– Day 21: fountain: “When will *women* understand that: No means no. Every. Single. Time.”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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People in the Catholic net are pretty serious.
