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March 31, 2024When I was a young child helping my mother set the table with her white linen napkins, she was quite insistent that I fold them a certain way. I also noticed throughout the years that she folded all cloth items her hands touched, whether soiled or clean. Years later, I decided to ask her why folding napkins and clothes was considered the most important household task she did, for it was obvious she did not see it as work. She told me that she remembered a sermon from her church’s pastor about Christ’s burial cloths in the tomb, and especially about the cloth that had covered his head, “being rolled up in a separate place.” Afterward, she unfolded a linen napkin and asked me to notice the cross that her folding made on the napkin. Suddenly it was clear, I understood how important this was to my mother…and also to me, for we both had long been acquainted with The Shroud of Turin, and I (more recently acquainted) with Rome correspondent for EWTN historian Paul Badde’s books, The Face Of God and The Holy Veil of Manoppello.
Not long ago, I was asked by a friend if I had a favorite saint. Without hesitation, I said, “Mary, the mother of God is my favorite.” Yet, recently, I was reminded by my husband Ted that Saint Mary Magdalene is the “Patroness Saint of the Dominicans.” I see her kneeling at the foot of the cross with Mother Mary in our beautiful St. Peter Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and I am now becoming more inspired by her life. Biblically, I first became acquainted with her in the Gospel of Luke where scripture tells us that seven demons were cast out from her when she was healed by Jesus. She was left homeless without family ties, or parents. Yet, the Good News we know now is that Mary Magdala from the city of Magdalene, was noticed compassionately by Jesus and healed completely, becoming “intimately entwined in the memory of the Resurrection in all four gospels.” She was the first person to witness the Resurrection and to see the burial cloths in the tomb including the cloth that covered His head rolled up in a separate place. She became “An Apostle to the Apostles” as a special friend to Christ. Now, my daily prayers will include St. Mary Magdala, asking for her intercession in the wars between Israel and Palestine and in the Middle East. I have faith my prayers will be answered too and how do I know? I have observed the gestures of our priests’ hands when they place the white cloth (corporal) on the altar at the start of our Eucharist holding the body and blood of Christ when they are consecrated. Then at the end of communion, their hands refold the corporal horizontally and vertically into thirds, ‘reminding us of the Holy Trinity.
[click here for the readings of the day]
