March 31, 2024
by Mrs. Roxie Krausser, OP, Lay Dominican, Memphis, TN
When 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.
Fr. James Marchionda, OP breaks open the readings for Easter Sunday
