Sacred Signs: The Linen

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs. It is spread out on the altar; it lies, in the corporal, as a winding cloth, under chalice and Host; the priest, when he performs the sacred service, is vested in the alb, the white linen garment; linen covers the table of the Lord at which the divine bread is distributed… True linen is a costly thing, clean and fine and strong. When it lies there so white and fresh I can only think of a forest walk in winter, when I came suddenly to an open slope which lay covered with freshly fallen snow spread out spotless between the dark pines. I did not dare to walk over it with my coarse boots – I walked round it most reverently. So lies the linen spread out for the Holy Things.