Saturday, December 08, 2007

Lipstsick on the Chalice

Maybe the rule should be that the people in charge of washing purificators should be the women who wear red lipstick at the altar rail.

It really is okay, ladies, to wipe off most of your lipstick after the sermon or the Agnus Dei.

5 comments:

  1. How do you get it out? I find that dish soap works well.

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  2. Today I'm being lazy and irreverent and washing the purificators in the washing machine instead of by hand. So I put Shout on the lipstick, and then put only about a tablespoon or two of laundry detergent in the machine. The stains came out. When I do them by hand, it takes more work.

    When I was in college, the procedure was to take the purificators off the altar, and immediately put them to soak in a rather strong solution of Clorox 2. Then later we'd rinse them thoroughly and iron. That seems to work, but now that I'm old, the chemical is not only expensive but very hard on my hands.

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  3. Well, this is something that has never even crossed my mind especially since I am a non-make-up sort of person. Huh. Interesting.

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  4. I always wear lipstick or gloss, even though I don't wear much makeup because my lips are really pale. Sometimes I forget about it until I'm up at communion and quickly wipe the back of my hand across my mouth. :)

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  5. No experience with making the mess... but some with cleaning it up.

    In collect I was in charge for a year of taking care of the communion set-up and takedown and this frequently was an issue. After soaking in cold water I often used oxi-clean. Very good stuff.

    Thankfully, at seminary we have a dedicated group of ladies that do our linens for us. However, in the last six months of being Sacristan I have only noticed lipstick on a purificator once (ladies are outnumbered 10 to 1 in chapel.

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