81/365 Jesus' Laundry

Ethel called. Hildegard said she would.

So you'll do the third Sunday, she tells me. They were down to just Ethel at this point and needed to increase numbers or else the laundry would never be done. I thought about Faustina shaking her head at me when I asked if she'd be willing to take care of altar linens: "My husband told me I have too much to take care of with my family's laundry, I can't do Jesus' laundry too."

But even though my ironing board is a permanent fixture right now in my library, and we hide baskets of clothes in the basement laundry room to momentarily get the house clean, I'm going to be doing Jesus' laundry once a month.

Mostly purificators, Ethel says. Rinse them in plain water and discard the water someplace in the ground--she waters her plants with it. Then wash them like anything you want to keep pure white and happens to be covered in wine stains. I'm thinking oxyclean myself. This summer will find the backyard line covered in little white linen cloths.

I plan to iron them and return them to the sacristy in individual plastic bags--produce bags that I've washed and dried for reuse, of course--all with notes pinned on them marked "purificator".

Miguel will love that. The little old lady I'm replacing was exact about things. I have standards to meet.