Substitute for the corporal?

[analtarboy]

Ok this one made me mad so much when I saw it.

The MBG or Mother Butlers Guild place a square white line THAT isn’t a corporal it looked like a handkerchief on the credence table and that is where the EMHC will purify the vessel and told us that we shouldn’t complain cause ITS SO HARD TO IRON AND WASH WHITE LINENS! I wanted to take this to our parish priest and MC but I keep on forgetting my bad… oh by the way the MBG are the women that makes sure or is supposed to make sure that the priest’s vestment and linens are clean and stuff.

Is that even ok to use a handkerchief as a coporal.

 

[Maximilian75]

Dude, I get it, but there are bigger fish to fry.

Those mothers do their best. If your pastor has no problem with it, let it be.

 

[Irishmom2]

OP, perhaps you should take up washing and ironing the linens yourself if you find it such an outrage. I agree with Max, if your priest is not complaining, why are you?

 

[edward_george1]

I was saying Mass on my day off once and didn’t have a clean purificator, and I was on the road and away from my parish. So I substituted a handkerchief. I needed something. Of course it’s okay. There’s nothing magic about altar linens that makes them altar linens. White cloth is white cloth. As long as it’s being used and cleaned properly it doesn’t matter a whole lot. Be at peace.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[Maximilian75]

Out of curiosity, Father- They aren’t even blessed for their use?

 

[Gorgias]

it looked like a handkerchief on the credence table

Is that even ok to use a handkerchief as a coporal.

So, you’re not even talking about the altar? Just the credence table?!?

Yeah… a cloth suffices.

 

[edward_george1]

Certainly they can be blessed. I’m not sure what you’re getting at.

 

[Maximilian75]

well, is there a truly substantive difference between a linen handkerchief and a corporal (IE a blessing that must be done) or it just its use that makes it a corporal as opposed to a linen handkerchief?

 

[Vico]

Ok this one made me mad so much when I saw it.

The MBG or Mother Butlers Guild place a square white line THAT isn’t a corporal it looked like a handkerchief on the credence table and that is where the EMHC will purify the vessel and told us that we shouldn’t complain cause ITS SO HARD TO IRON AND WASH WHITE LINENS! I wanted to take this to our parish priest and MC but I keep on forgetting my bad… oh by the way the MBG are the women that makes sure or is supposed to make sure that the priest’s vestment and linens are clean and stuff.

Is that even ok to use a handkerchief as a coporal.

GIRM 118 states that the credence table have a corporal.

 

[edward_george1]

It’s just the use, I would think. Blessings aren’t magic. Nor does a blessing transubstantiate something into something else. It’s not as though the nature of a cloth changes into something other than what it had been before when it gets blessed.

 

[Maximilian75]

I mean, yes, obviously.

I guess I’m trying to ask if the Church asks that in ‘ideal circumstances’ that one uses blessed corporals as opposed to a handkerchief

 

[edward_george1]

Cloth is cloth. At the end of the day, it’s about the function of the thing. The point of the corporal is not some mystical and symbolic significance. It’s a cloth used to keep particles of the host from falling away. There isn’t a substantive difference between a handkerchief and a corporal in the way they’re constructed. I have some cheap corporals that are no nicer than my best handkerchiefs. So again, cloth is cloth.

The altar cloth in my mobile sacristy is a $5 twin sheet from Walmart. Why? Because I didn’t want to pay $60 for an altar cloth from a church supply catalog that would do the same thing.

 

[Gorgias]

GIRM 118 states that the credence table have a corporal.

No, it doesn’t. GIRM 118 states that the corporal – that is, the corporal which will be used on the altar during Mass – is to be placed on the credence table (along with the other vessels and linens that will be used).

Unless we’re all mistaken, @analtarboy isn’t talking about the corporal that is to be used at Mass – he’s talking about the cloth that is permanently sitting on the credence table.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

GIRM 118 states that the credence table have a corporal.

No, it doesn’t. GIRM 118 states that the corporal – that is, the corporal which will be used on the altar during Mass – is to be placed on the credence table (along with the other vessels and linens that will be used).

Unless we’re all mistaken, @analtarboy isn’t talking about the corporal that is to be used at Mass – he’s talking about the cloth that is permanently sitting on the credence table.

What I mean is:
118. Likewise these should be prepared: …
c) on the credence table: the chalice, corporal, purificator, and, if appropriate, the pall;…

 

[FrDavid96]

I mean, yes, obviously.

I guess I’m trying to ask if the Church asks that in ‘ideal circumstances’ that one uses blessed corporals as opposed to a handkerchief

Yes, of course, in “ideal” circumstances—even in “normal” circumstances, we should be using altar linens that are set aside for that purpose.

However, it is not necessary that whatever constitutes a corporal must come from some catalogue-based supplier of liturgical goods.

Until recent decades, most altar linens were handmade locally.

 

[Gorgias]

What I mean is:

1. Likewise these should be prepared: …

c) on the credence table: the chalice, corporal, purificator, and, if appropriate, the pall;…

Right. Which is not the question that the OP was asking (unless we all have horribly misunderstood him)…

 

[FrDavid96]

Ok this one made me mad so much when I saw it.

The MBG or Mother Butlers Guild place a square white line THAT isn’t a corporal it looked like a handkerchief on the credence table and that is where the EMHC will purify the vessel and told us that we shouldn’t complain cause ITS SO HARD TO IRON AND WASH WHITE LINENS! I wanted to take this to our parish priest and MC but I keep on forgetting my bad… oh by the way the MBG are the women that makes sure or is supposed to make sure that the priest’s vestment and linens are clean and stuff.

Is that even ok to use a handkerchief as a coporal.

I still don’t understand the question or the situation.

They placed a square white linen on the credence table, to avoid having to wash a white linen.

That makes no sense.

 

[casslean]

I still don’t understand the question or the situation.

They placed a square white linen on the credence table, to avoid having to wash a white linen.

That makes no sense.

Yes, I’m a little confused as well.

Our credence table is just covered by a plain white tablecloth.

When we purify the vessels after Mass, they usually take them on a tray into the sacristy. I know in my instruction as an EMHC, we weren’t told that we needed to lay down a fresh corporal before purifying.

 

[Vico]

…
Right. Which is not the question that the OP was asking (unless we all have horribly misunderstood him)…

To use a handkerchief instead of a corporal at the credence table?

GIRM states to use a corporal for a purification following dismissal, for example for Mass without a Deacon:

1. … If the vessels are purified at the altar, they are carried to the credence table by a minister. Nevertheless, it is also permitted, especially if there are several vessels to be purified, to leave them suitably covered on a corporal, either at the altar or at the credence table, and to purify them immediately after Mass following the dismissal of the people.

And with a Deacon

1. … If the vessels are purified at the altar, they are carried to the credence table by a minister. Nevertheless, it is also permitted, especially if there are several vessels to be purified, to leave them suitably covered on a corporal, either at the altar or at the credence table, and to purify them immediately after Mass following the dismissal of the people.

With Instituted Acolyte

1. Likewise, when the distribution of Communion is completed, a duly instituted acolyte helps the priest or deacon to purify and arrange the sacred vessels. When no deacon is present, a duly instituted acolyte carries the sacred vessels to the credence table and there purifies, wipes, and arranges them in the usual way.

 

[Gorgias]

To use a handkerchief instead of a corporal at the credence table?

GIRM states to use a corporal for a purification following dismissal, for example for Mass without a Deacon:

#163 and 183 are good points. However, they’re saying that a corporal is needed if the sacred species remain, in a vessel that hasn’t been purified. If there aren’t vessels to be purified, then there’s no need for a corporal.

However, as a practical matter, it would make no sense to have two types of linens, so a corporal makes sense.

Let’s come to the logical next step in the discussion: what is it that makes a corporal a corporal, anyway? The shape of the linen? The embroidered cross? The dedication for use solely in liturgy? @FrDavid96, do you have any info you can share?