Sewing Sacred Linens a Sign of New Springtime

Courtesy of Fiber Images

In 2008, a priest in the capital city of Lincoln, Nebraska, told me he saw signs of that new "Springtime of the Faith" often spoken of by the Blessed Pope John Paul II.

It all began at Blessed Sacrament Church when a group of junior high girls serving as lectors asked Father Brendan Kelly for a tour of the sacristy. He noticed how drawn the girls were to the sacred linens – the vestments and altar cloths. It got him thinking about how worn those linens were at his struggling mission church, and about his grandmother’s Order of Martha sewing materials.

The 13^th of 14 children, Father Kelly was born in the southwest Chicago suburb of Oak Park. He remembers coming home from high school to see his mother opening an old box of his Grandmother’s. Together, they looked through patterns that his Grandma had used to make altar linens in her Order of Martha sewing circle.

Courtesy of Catholic Encyclopedia

Started by the Catholic Church Extension Society in 1911, Order of Martha groups sewed for missions in the U.S.. The groups peaked in the 1960s with 6,000 members.

Brendan Kelly’s Grandma had left one last purificator only partly sewn in her box. When the young man decided to be a priest, the youngest granddaughter on up to his mother passed the cloth around until the final seams were sewn. Then the cloth was used to wipe the chrism oil off Father Kelly’s hands during his ordination. The family followed tradition by burying this special cloth, called a manuturgium, with his mother when she died.

Fast forward some years, to Father Kelly serving at Blessed Sacrament Parish. When he gave that tour to the young lectors and saw their interest in sacred linens, he started praying about the situation. He realized that in hand sewing altar linens, women offered themselves at the altar, and that sewing itself is a contemplative act. He started talking about this theology of sewing, and girls and older women came to him saying, I don’t know how to sew, but can I learn?

In 2008, Father Kelly contacted Extension to tell about the first new Order of Martha Household to form in 30 years!

When staff at Extension heard the news, they were excited. By the middle of the 20^th century, Order of Martha sewing circles had shipped nearly 400,000 sets of altar linens. But all that had come to an end with the use of polyester and ready-made sacred cloths in church. By 2005, only six known groups still operated.

Younger generations find joy
in hand sewing. My daughter
 and a friend in the park.

Through Extension’s office moves, original sewing patterns had been lost, yet here was Father Kelly with his grandmother’s patterns. One editor at EXTENSION Magazine wrote me in an email: "I’m very tickled about this Order of Martha household because I sew. My husband asked me a couple of weeks ago 'if women still do that,' and I had to scratch my head. I only know a few.”

Father Kelly said few of the girls and women coming forward in his parish had any sewing experience, but something was drawing them on to learn how.

During the first junior meeting, tornado sirens blew and the group ended by celebrating Mass with Father Kelly in the basement. At following meetings, members worked on simple purificators. When they graduated to sewing real linen, it was beautiful imported linen from Belgium, provided by Father and other donors through the altar society.

One sixth grade girl asked to embroider a little baptismal garment, saying she wanted to give back to God because He had given so much to her.

Another member had been sexually abused by family members as a child, and found healing in sewing the pure, white linens. She said dressing the altar with these linens, was like dressing Jesus.

Today, Ruth Push is Vice-President of Blessed Sacrament’s Order of Martha. It’s been hard to keep members because things happen in people’s lives to draw them away. Also, Father Kelly now serves at another Nebraska church. But still, an average of seven women gather monthly to sew. The youngest of seven siblings, Ruth is a divorced mother of two grown boys and runs a day care from her home, yet she sews at least a seam a day. Sometimes that means taking a purificator to the laundromat and sewing while she processes her laundry.

She asks the Lord to accept each stitch as a prayer and has seen miracles happen, including one person becoming Catholic. Ruth has grown to a deep sense of knowing that Jesus really is present in the Eucharist. When her father died, she had the honor of hand sewing the corporal, purificator and hand towel used at his funeral.

Her Order of Martha group hand-sewed and donated altar linens for Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. Today, they’re finishing 23 corporals and 15 purificators for Blessed Sacrament.

Are hand crafts re-emerging?
Women in our tech-saturated 
society are taking time to 
sew and knit.  
Photo by Marianna Bartholomew

When I first spoke with Father Kelly in 2008, it was fun because I, too, was noticing an interest in sewing and traditional handcrafts with my daughter and her friends. At one point, we had three generations of women working to turn the train of my wedding gown into a veil for a pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. It was amazing to see a grandmother, two mothers and two 16-year-old daughters sewing seams together. We still meet during the summer for a knitting club in the park.

Father Kelly said this re-kindling of interest in the lost art of hand sewing, was a sign of something bigger. When I got off the phone after our first conversation, I literally did a little dance for joy. I had this sense of the Holy Spirit moving through hidden pockets of women across our nation, through their simple acts of hand sewing. Father told me, “These skills were lost for a time, but not entirely lost.”

Seeing active, modern women seeking quiet … settling in to the contemplative work of hand sewing vestments, really is a sign of a re-kindling – and a New Springtime in the Church. 

I present this piece in the new Catholic Vitamins podcast for "R-Rekindle." Also featured in that podcast are a song performed by popular singer-songwriter Simonetta and an interview with Kelly Wahlquist about the Father Michael Gaitley, MIC, Marian consecration book, 33 Days to Morning Glory.

"The Three Little Pigs" in Shakespearean English? One of my favorite things about today's technology is sharing videos like these! Enjoy...

Big Game Hunting, Suburban-Style

Photo by Kenneth Stansell/USFWS

A few months ago, my 14-year-old son told me the father of one of his classmates was a big game hunter.


"He shot a giraffe and has it in his garage," my son said matter-of-factly.


I burst out laughing, explaining to my poor, gullible son that his classmate was pulling his leg. My son insisted, however, and we left the conversation with him shaking his head that I wouldn't believe his story, and me pitying him that he would.


Today, I went over to the classmate's house for a school function, and couldn't help but notice the pelts and taxidermied heads of deer on a number of walls.


"That one's a wildebeast," explained my hostess, pointing out a strange head that bore horns just like the beast character in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.


Over cookies and coffee, my gracious hostess mentioned her husband's passion for hunting, saying one of his biggest animals hunted was even now in their garage, en route to their Colorado cabin for hanging.


"Oh? And what is that?"


"A giraffe," replied the lady, mother of six, and a beautifully dressed blonde with a home expressing a warm, eclectic, country feel.


We marched out to the garage, and there, in a box at least twelve feet long, lay a taxidermic giraffe, from the torso up. The effect this had on me, munching my chocolate chip cookie after a little school function, then reaching out to touch the strangely oily hairs of this majestic animal, would be hard to describe.


Months ago, if my son had told me a UFO had landed on his friend's house, I would have given him the same reaction I did about the giraffe's tale. Yet, the preposterous story was true!


After initial amazement, my next reaction was sadness that this creature was sacrificed for sport. But the meat was harvested and eaten by people in Africa, assured my hostess, so that makes it just a matter of custom, when you think about it. I've always loved giraffes, with their mottled hides and goofy projections atop their heads. But cows are lovable too, and we eat those! So I guess the morality of shooting even a graceful giraffe is akin to whether we should slaughter a cow.


But seeing a giraffe in a Chicago suburban garage was such a non-sequitor, it kept me chuckling all day. You know those lists people send around on FACEBOOK, that say, "25 things about me you didn't know." I could just see this dear lady's list: "1. Make mean chocolate chip cookies; 2. Am a closet oil painter; 3. Have a giraffe in my garage...


This whole scenario gets me thinking about the nature of ideas and truth. With his giraffe story, my son was speaking truth, but I couldn't accept that. How often have we discounted some truth spoken by a loved one or colleague, just because of a closed mind? Think about geniuses like Edison and prophets like John the Baptist. The outrageous, out-of-the-box messages they proclaimed were rejected by many, but were simple truth.


In fact, we often go through our days rejecting how crazy and surprising is the truth of our very existence. That our bodies are complex connections of regenerating cells? Incredible. That our very thoughts emerge as speech intelligible (in varying degrees) to others? A miracle. That our body is simply a shell for our eternal soul? Mind-boggling.


A giraffe in a garage? A good reminder that nothing about life is mundane, if seen with right eyes.

Happy Easter

He is Risen! Alleluia! Happy Easter!

Photo by Ed Bartholomew

Living Stations of the Cross at University of Illinois

My family attended this living Stations of the Cross at the University of Illinois, in Champagne-Urbana on Good Friday, put on by the Catholic students through St. John Newman Catholic Church and the Newman Center on campus. The reverence of the students at this well-attended Good Friday devotion was inspiring.

Top two photos by Marianna Bartholomew, remaining photos by Ed Bartholomew.

The Nature of Faith

Photo by Daniel Bartholmew

The Nature of Faith

We shape our lives 
by rebellion or acquiescence.

To rebel 
is to slingshot our identity 
into the netherworld

where questions stand 
thick and solid as skyscrapers.

To accept
is to ascend the tallest bell tower

with an overview of the city.

Most of us transcend 
then fall

transcend
then fall again 
trodding the same worn plot

like a sentry guarding city gates.

Determined to defend 
what seems unattainable

we guard we know not what

until, with faith,

we gain eternal entry.

By Marianna Bartholomew


Rebellion can either serve or defeat, as can acquiescence. To rebel against status quo in seeking excellence or truth is a great thing. If society tells us to "fit in," but also to set aside all that is moral or good, than obviously, we need to rebel against that pressure. 

Rebellion that sends us into the "netherworld"  is misdirected, often born of pride. To rebel, but then avoid a sincere search for truth, leads us to that existence "where questions stand thick and solid as skyscrapers." 


Fine. We are all inclined to rebel now and then, an instinct born of human nature. But do we use this instinct as a catalyst, taking time to really dig for reasonable answers? So often, people fling about in an orgy of experience and disbelief, seeking what "feels right," instead of filling in the gaps with some real answers born of research and reflection. 

Regarding tough questions about my faith, I've learned to launch an investigation, just as I would for any story I write. I explore early Church writers, Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, encyclicals. This kind of rigor is so satisfying when it comes to thinking and praying about life's great mysteries. In the end, I've discovered the beauty of informed acquiescence. 

Rebellion has another facet. Do we rebel against life circumstances? Sometimes, that type of rebellion can be productive, helping us transform a harmful home, school, work or even civic environment -- if we initiate change with a healthy respect and consideration of others. But if we are presented a tough circumstance, like a child with a terminal illness or a catastrophic accident, do we rail against that event, or accept and move on in faith?

Rebellion and acquiescence. How do I choose one over the other? God knows, my natural instincts lead me to push back fiercely at times, averse to pain or difficulty. But learning to thrive within certain limitations, builds rich character. To respect ourselves, we must put up a fight -- for the good -- learning to work optimistically and at peak level within restrictions. 


Who is God calling me to be? Moving blindly through an unexamined life is dissatisfying. Thank God for the light He gives, that turns rebellion into inspired acts, as the soul hungers to accept God's Will.

As for that "same worn plot," those old, ingrained sins get tedious after a while! Thank God for the Actual Grace of His sacraments, that frees us and strews flowers along the path. I am no Mother Teresa, who strived through decades of dryness. I've experienced time and again how God gifts the weak with consolations, like Padre Pio once fed chocolates to new converts. 


May our Holy Week be blessed! 


© By Marianna Bartholomew 2012


"Let us unite ourselves to the Passion and death of Jesus Christ in the conscious way we live each moment of our Holy Week so that our hope may grow." -- Father Pater John Cameron, OP, Holy Week, 2012, Magnificat.

Taking Techie Breaks for Old-Fashioned Domesticity

Photo by Daniel Bartholomew

How to balance high-tech living and a contemplative spirit amidst modern family life? Here's a project from last week that instilled a little bliss and peace into my otherwise crazy schedule. I decided to stop fighting my overflow of beloved cookbooks, take them out of the jammed cupboard and display them, covered decoratively so their dogeared covers wouldn't be an eyesore. That way, this collection I treasure is available, ready to use and even adds a style element to the room.

I've been too busy for crafts lately. But the idea of a sanity break, doing something out of the ordinary and just for pleasure, and something uplifting to the whole family, appealed. My Grandmother might have done a similar project, back when scraps of material and paper were salvaged, treasured, and turned into something useful and attractive. 


I remember stories of Grandma saving and ironing old gift wrap to reuse. I still have some of her gift tags, cut with decorative scissors from greeting cards she received. People during WWII learned to be the ultimate recyclers. My family inherited a footstool Grandma had made out of quart-sized tomato juice cans covered with fabric. As a newlywed, I reupholstered the "hassock" and presented it to my Mom. It's a surprisingly classy-looking stool, and you would never guess its humble origins. 

But it's been awhile since I've stepped away from the daily grind, let the world spin on without me for a bit, and did something crafty and home-beautifying. 

We have a galley kitchen in a 1950's ranch-style house. I love cooking and baking, which makes for  too many fun gadgets for the space (like the grain grinder on the middle shelf above and my bean crock on the lower) -- plus a food processor, blender, a juicer, myriads of baking tins and stoneware, etc! To call the area cozy is being polite. I frequently pray for organization in our home. Grandma and Grandpa (God rest their souls) managed tidily with nine people sharing a two bedroom Chicago bungalow, back when front porches turned into sleeping chambers through sultry summers. In comparison, it seems ridiculous to admit that three children, aged pre-teen and up, and two adults, in a three-bedroom home, feels like a tight fit. 


However, a new floor plan and way of using that kitchen space came to me so strongly the other day, it felt like a Holy Spirit moment and an answer to my organization prayers. I jettisoned an extra piece of furniture out of the kitchen, leading to a grand reorganizing: a drop-leaf table dragged before the shelves, and a coffee and toast center set up on a squat, vintage dresser nearby. On a day jammed with way too many other things to do, I cleared my mind of worries, donned an apron and reveled in domesticity for a while. My cluttered, unappealing shelves, suddenly bore a new, cheerful aspect. The minuscule table usually used in the corner for overflow produce and miscellany (we usually eat in the dining room), took center stage and became usable, even offering an alluring snack and reading nook.

Photo by Daniel Bartholomew

No sooner had I taken out a couple of old wallpaper sample books to find some good scraps for covers to complete the effect, when my 17-year-old daughter perked up, and sat cross-legged nearby to work out some great calligraphy and art.

We all love the result. Over the weekend, we found ourselves gathering in the kitchen over coffee in a space that finally works well for that purpose -- making even a galley kitchen the "heart of the home." 


I'll think of my girl and that shared time being creative, every time I grab a cookbook embellished with her designs. We were definitely in "flow" together on this project. There is something soothing about paging through fine wallpaper...the colors and textures are satisfying. If you have never gone to your local wallpaper store and asked if they have books of retired samples you can take, then consider doing so, especially if you still have children at home. It's fun just paging through the samples, and we've used the paper for everything from homemade coffee can banks and pencil containers, to greeting cards and paper doll clothing.

Anyway, in this age of hi-tech everything, I loved this project that brightened and made useable an otherwise cramped and unattractive spot in our kitchen -- and carved some pure pleasure into an overly-busy day. Bill-paying, doctor's appointments, school and sports activities, endless dishes and cleaning, and time spent on computers, iPhones, vocations and careers -- that's daily fare. But how often do we remember to call even a short recess, put our burdens and gadgets aside, and experience the sheer pleasure of crafting something beautiful to make our house more a home?