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The Altar Care and Linens Ministry: Members Are Blessed to Provide Vital Service to the Liturgy
The COVID-19 pandemic may have curtailed the activities of our Altar Care and Linens Ministry, but its members have remained dedicated to their work in maintaining the cleanliness and preparation of the linens used in the celebration of Mass.
Rachel Stablein is the ministry coordinator, and she is anticipating the ministry’s schedule to return as COVID-19 restrictions ease. During the height of the restrictions, Rachel took care of the linens as Communion was not being offered in both species. However, now she plans to have the 18 members resume their duties.
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Each ministry member is responsible for the altar linens for one week. The member collects the used linens either on Sunday after the last Mass, takes them home, washes and irons them, and returns them to the church within a day or two. The linens are washed separately at the minister’s home and are not mixed in the family laundry. Each item is treated with respect.
“If we have that number of members, normally, each person does it only three times a year,” Rachel says. “So it’s not a ministry that is heavily involved.”
The items washed are the purificators and the large washcloths that are used during Baptisms, the towels used to clean the chalices, and the small towels the priests use during the washing of hands.
“These are basically the things to be washed and ironed,” Rachel says.
As normal activities resume at the parish, the number of items to be washed will increase, especially those used during weddings.
While laundering used linens may appear to be a mundane activity, for those in the ministry, it has a special meaning.
“For many of our members, they say, ‘This is my contribution, I’m doing the sacred linens, and it’s really quite an honor to do something used at Mass,’” Rachel says. “Not all ministries are involved with this connection with Communion — the Body and Blood of Christ. That is really the motivating factor for many.”
The Altar Care and Linens Ministry also provides a way for older parishioners to remain active in stewardship in the parish.
“We had one member who was also a sacristan, and she loved it,” Rachel says. “It was something she could still do. ‘We do different things at different times of life,’ is what she said. It’s so true. Perhaps some can’t do what they used to do, but they can do this.”
Not only do ministry members launder the altar linens, but several also sew corporals and purificators for the parish, happy in the knowledge that something they have made will last over time, for the good of the Cathedral of Christ the King.
