I volunteer at Catholic Campus Ministry at Missouri State University & we also service Drury Univ. & Ozarks Technical College. The Claretians run it & they truly take a vow of poverty. So our church could use some decor. Also, any suggestions for altar plants that are hardy indoor plants would be greatly appreciated. Any ideas for attractive but reasonable stations of the cross? Thank you & God Bless, Sharon

 I have been searching the internet for an appropriate edging for an altar cover which I promised to crochet for a priest friend. On Tuesday I went to a Greek Orthodox Monastery in Pleasant Prairie, WI and I saw a very beautiful edging with a cross design. I left a voice mail message with the sisters but I haven’t heard from them. Well anyway, can you please suggest a good pattern for me to use?   Thank you very much. Lou

Dalmatics and tunicles have “clavi” ( a costume element from the Roman Senate) or rectangles of contrasting color and usually matching orphrey work on the vestment, sewed along the front and back center hem. If the dalmatic has one clavus, the tunicle will have none. From time to time you may see a tunicle with one clavus and the dalmatic to the Mass set with two clavi, although this seems to be pretty rare in the recent designs. The sub deacon wears the tunicle, the dalmatic may be worn by the Crucifer and/or Deacon. A pair of matching dalmatics is often seen for these purposes in a sacristy closet.  The Crucifer, in years gone by wore white gloves while bearing the processional Cross.

  In the illustration provided by our reader below, I am not sure why the rectangle at the bottom is whited out. It may be simply that the design illustration was not finished. I have purchased line drawings for old vestment catalogues over the years, some hand-tinted, which have been unfinished. Please write in if you have any other thoughts on this illustration.

We are in Framingham, MA,
www.standrewsframma.org. There are 12 pew torches.  The torches were made about 20 years ago by the students in the metal shop at the local vocational technical high school. There are 3 or 4 different patterns around the part that holds the chimneys (the pew torches are not identical, but they are the same height and design). There is a pair of hooks near the top of each torch that can hold decorations (such as greenery at Christmas or a nosegay at Easter) Dimensions (approximate)
- over all height (excluding chimney): 68″
- base (foot) is 1″ wide and 9″ long, sets on the floor and snugs up
to the end of the pew
- arm is about 32″ off the floor, inside width 2″ and 9.25″ long. The
arm fits loosely over the top of the end of the pew and steadies the
torch. On our pews, there is about an inch of “slack” along long side.

There are 16 glass chimneys that can be used on kerosene lamps.  The chimneys are 3″ in diameter at the bottom and are 8.5″ tall. You can run them
through the dishwasher to clean them.

We are giving away the torches and chimneys.

This Sunday,October 2, 2011, we will be observing the Feast of Saint Francis at a service of Holy Communion and Blessing of Animals at 8 & 10.  This is always a joyful occasion at St. Augustine’s URI, with many parishioners bringing in all sorts of animals domestic and exotic.  Please share your photos of your parish celebration of this day!  Revdma@aol.com (jpegs, gifs, or tiff files).

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Michelmas is upon us- where did the summer go?  Some of us are still cleaning up after Hurricane Irene, and many church yards lost venerable trees and plantings in the big wind.  September brings everyone back from vacations, and at church, ministries and programs are getting up and running again as a new year starts.

Now is the time to have a good look around the sacristy to see what the humid summer months have done.  This is a good time to replenish supplies, air out cupboards and drawers, and have a good look at what needs repairing or cleaning.

I enjoyed visiting Grace Church last month, and meeting Marty, the directress there. She graciously showed me around the sacristy and showed me some of the wonderful textiles in inventory. I will be putting up a slide show very soon. 

A question arose as I was looking at inventory to relocate to other parishes.  Should low mass sets be broken up?  The answer is simply, NO!!

 A low mass set is comprised of chasuble, stole, burse, chalice veil and maniple. Although many churches have stopped using maniples, chalice veils and burses, should the set ever be either sold or relocated, a COMPLETE set is more valuable, and might be used in another parish. If the humeral veil, tunicle, dalmatic, cope, frontal and stoles and maniples are added to that list above, you have a Solemn High Mass set of vestments.  A few years ago we located such a set in the inventory of the textile school at URI- and how exciting it was to see every single piece still there! So, before you toss out or give up individual pieces of a set, be sure the rest of the set is beyond repair, sale, or relocating.

* Blessed vestments and linens, of course, must be burned when they are no longer fit to be used.

“We have soot on the White fair linen. There are approximately 4 spots. I am tasked to clean this and am fearful of leaving a ring around any spot that I may attempt to remove. We would appreciate knowing what product to use and how to use it. Thank you very much. This web site has been most useful.  Blessings, Patricia Collins Larkspur CO”

Next to lily pollen, soot has to be the next worst thing to remove.  Of course the best thing is prevention. Keep your candle wicks trimmed, and the candle burn -well free of debris.  Use a glass or brass candle follower.  In some cases bobeches can catch waxy soot before it hits the linen. ALWAYS use 51% pure beeswax candles for the altar. They burn cleaner, drip less and smoke less.  Keep the INSIDE of your candle “snuffer” bell SPOTLESSLY clean.  After cleaning it out, give it a light spray of PAM and wipe out residue. If the candle snuffer bell is clean inside when it goes over the candle, there is less chance of sooty drips falling onto the linen. If there is a heavy build up inside the bell, soften it by using a blow dryer to heat it up, wipe out with a paper towel. Repeat until clean.  Teach the acolytes to merely hold the bell over the flame to extinguish it. They do not have to cram the snuffer over the flaming candle. The idea is to deprive the flame of oxygen by “smothering it”, not mashing the flaming wick into the brass. (This happens more than you would guess and it makes such a sooty mess inside the snuffer).  Use a fair linen protector at ALL times when an altar is not being used for a service.  This will save your linen! Fair linens are so expensive.  Pale blue is the usual traditional color for protectors in Episcopal churches, and they may be made out of plain cotton , even a twin -sized bed sheet works beautifully when cut and hemmed to fit. An embroidered cross is not needed on the protector.

All that being said- the damage is done and there is an ugly black spot on that snowy white linen. Before laundering it, treat that spot!  Once soot has been washed into the linen, it is harder than ever to get it out. Treat as soon as possible.  First thing is to vacuum up as much as possible. If it is just carbon, and powdery from a candle wick, vacuuming should get most of it out.  Then try a soft toothbrush. Flick in short, one-way strokes.  If there is still some residue on the spot, cover it with baking soda and let that sit for an hour.  Dump off the residue and try the flick method with the soft tooth brush  to get all of the baking soda out.  Be patient and work slowly. You have now exhausted the “dry method”.

There are several remedies to try using the “wet method” when all else fails.  Take a white hanky, cotton ball or cloth and dab it into rubbing alcohol.  With a blotting  motion, up and down, apply to the spot.  You may wish to put a paper towel behind the spot.  More of the soot should come up. Rinse out with cold water. Still seeing a spot?  Now bring on the big guns!  Sadly, soot frequently has wax mixed in it. If you can actually see the wax sitting on top of the linen, you may be able to gently scrap it off before you start to treat the soot stain. I have had luck using the edge of a credit card, pushing in one direction in short strokes. You do not want to break the threads, so knives can be risky. If the wax is too soft, pop the linen in a plastic bag and put it in a freezer for awhile until the wax gets hard and easy to scrape away.

Finally, if you have exhausted all of the above tips.  Try a laundry stain remover (liquid) on the spot.  Be sure to rinse it out.  I have had some luck using  a solution of two cups cool water and one tablespoon dishwashing liquid(I like DAWN).  And finally, give a tough case an overnight soak.  I am a big fan of TIDE or BIZ.  Launder as usual.  Sometimes you may have to go to a professional cleaner’s when you have done your best.  Let me know how it turned out!!

*  On Ash Wednesday, keep a piece of soft French bread ready for the priest to wipe ashes off the fingers. After wiping the soot on the bread, a cleansing of the fingers across a slice of lemon will then leave the fingers pristine and spare your purificator!  This little preparation looks dainty in an attractive glass saucer handy nearby on the credence table.