Silk burse from a sow's ear

I was originally going to title this post 40 Hours Devotion, but the project took a bit longer...

Above is a burse I rescued from a local priest's hideous burse drawer and re-covered. In its new glory it was first used at a recent Church Lady wedding. As the receiving priest is fairly newly ordained, a gold burse is a nice way for him to to supplement his white vestments and emphasis solemnities such as Epiphany and Candlemas.

The original burse was violently jungle green and studded with rhinestones. It was so hideous that my computer has eaten all documentation of its original state.

For the new cover, I used the gold brocade that was popular among church ladies this season. Due to the shiny texture of the fabric, I had trouble transferring the level of detail of my chosen design using conventional means. Instead, I printed the design on regular bond paper, and tacked that into place on the brocade. I then began the hand embroidery, sans hoop.

Using a variety of plys of embroidery floss (1 for fine detail, 2 for medium, 3 for strong emphasis) I embroidered the line work in desired detail, using a back stitch for a tight line. Using a seam ripper, I carefully removed the excess paper.

I then satin stitched the fills: the feathers and the nest. After steaming the design flat, I trimmed the edges and finished them with Fray Check before folding the edges over and whip stitching the new panel on to the burse, the remainder of which was in good condition.

Here is am excerpt from New Advent's entry on burses:
A receptacle in which, for reasons of convenience and reverence, the folded corporal is carried to and from the altar. In Roman form the burse is ordinarily made of two juxtaposed pieces of cardboard about ten inches square, bound together at three edges, leaving the fourth open to receive the corporal. One outer side of the burse is of the same material and colour as the vestments with which it is used; the rest is lined with linen or silk.

Also, St Isidore's website has many helpful hints about altar linens, such as which way to orient designs.

Congratulations to a very dear Church Lady who was married this weekend!

We thank you, O God,
for the Love You have implanted in their hearts.
May it always inspire them to be kind in their words,
considerate of feeling,
and concerned for each other's needs and wishes.
Help them to be understanding and forgiving
of human weaknesses and failings.
Increase their faith and trust in You
and may Your Prudence guide their life and love.
Bless their Marriage O God,
with Peace and Happiness,
and make their love fruitful for Your glory
and their Joy both here and in eternity.

Image source
Prayer source

The legacy of some of our sodality sisters

St Mary's, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin

And like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. [i Pet, 2-5]

Extraliturgical tablecloths

Table linens versatile enough to be your Sunday best, or your middle-of-the -week mainstay. 100% cotton. Washable. Imported.

Check out Penney's sale on hemstitched linen tablecloths for all your domestic church feast needs, starting at $9.00 for a 52" square. Conveniently available in white, ivory, green, gold, violet, red, and black.

Happy Birthday, Humanae Vitae

Celebrate by reading or rereading this very short document and then follow up with an excellent article by Mary Eberstadt in First Things.

Four decades later, not only have the document’s signature predictions been ratified in empirical force, but they have been ratified as few predictions ever are: in ways its authors could not possibly have foreseen, including by information that did not exist when the document was written, by scholars and others with no interest whatever in its teaching, and indeed even inadvertently, and in more ways than one, by many proud public adversaries of the Church.

...

As with the other ironies, it helps here to have a soft spot for absurdity. In their simultaneous desire to jettison the distasteful parts of Catholicism and keep the more palatable ones, American Catholics have done something novel and truly amusing: They have created a specific catalogue of complaints that resembles nothing so much as a Catholic version of the orphan with chutzpah.

Thus many Catholics complain about the dearth of priests, all the while ignoring their own responsibility for that outcome—the fact that few have children in numbers large enough to send one son to the priesthood while the others marry and carry on the family name. They mourn the closing of Catholic churches and schools—never mind that whole parishes, claiming the rights of individual conscience, have contracepted themselves out of existence. They point to the priest sex scandals as proof positive that chastity is too much to ask of people—completely ignoring that it was the randy absence of chastity that created the scandals in the first place.

And finally, some of you will find yourselves referenced in this article:

As Naomi Schaefer Riley noted in the Wall Street Journal about events this year at Notre Dame: “About thirty students walked out of The Vagina Monologues in protest after the first scene. And people familiar with the university are not surprised that it was the kids, not the grownups, who registered the strongest objections. The students are probably the most religious part of the Notre Dame. . . . . Younger Catholics tend to be among the more conservative ones.”

When Church Ladies Go Bad

Over at Mulier Fortis:

Having seen these photos on the Curt Jester's excellent blog, I have been inspired. I feel sure that I am called and chosen... I have a vocation to the ordained priesthood. YES ! I want to become a womynpriest.

BUT... not just any old womynpriest. I like Latin, and snazzy vestments, and I believe in Tradition, and so I am totally convinced that I am called to be a Traddy womynpriest.

Well, now that she's discerned this call, I don't suppose there's anything anyone can do except go over to her post and help puzzle some conundra (is it possible to knit while attending in choir?).

Über Church Ladies

A friend of the Church Ladies sent along this 1915 New York Times piece a while back, but I was so taken, at the time, by the difference between the architectural renderings and what actually came to be (this particular CL is a bit of a Gothicist) that I failed to notice that the entire project was started by a group of Church Ladies. Now, your Hostesses have tended to sacristies; sewed, embrodered and ironed altar linens; and organized many Masses, but we have yet to actually take on the project of a whole new church, much less a National Shrine! And so, Church Ladies of the Past, we salute you!

The group is also mentioned in this short 1913 society column.

***Warning: extremely girly delight ahead***

Thérèse and I have been discussing the Church Lady Ongoing Campaign for Hat Enthusiasm quite a bit lately, and it has inspired me to search a little harder for a hat to wear to an upcoming wedding. Having already bought a dress, I wasn't sure I'd be able to find a matching hat, but on a whim, I started searching the websites of stores at which I never actually shop. Then, I found It:
Not only is It a perfect match and super-cute, but It was also $11, which was music to the ears of this poor college student. They had a few other cute hats as well (some obviously more church-worthy than others). I just had to share my hat-happiness.

Protochristian church ladies

Virgins in the temple
(from the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James)
Our Lady of Victories, Boston

Think global, act local

Some inspiration for church ladies, should they start running in higher ecclesiastical circles and save some poor cardinal from terrible millinery. All pictures from the Bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Boston exhibit at the BPL.