Prayer Shawl Stories

A beautiful reminder of God's presence and love...

Dear Friends at The Blessing Center,

Thank you for the prayer shawl - a beautiful reminder of God's presence and love which envelopes us and surrounds us with warmth and comfort. I have to confess that the day the shawl arrived has been a particularly difficult day - we had been trying to salvage things from our home in New Orleans, and I was physically and emotionally drained. When I opened the package with the prayer shawl, I began to cry and wrapped it around myself. It helps to know of the prayers that surround us and to feel the love and care that the shawl represents.

Our congregation has started weekly worship at another church. This Sunday, for the children's sermon, I shared the shawl and wrapped the children in it.

Thank you for the Prayer Shawl Ministry and for the spiritual life of the Blessing Center. Your support, prayers, and expressions of God's love are truly a blessing and much appreciated.

In Christ's peace,

Jean Marie Peacock
►Rev. Peacock is Vice-Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Associate Pastor at Lakeview Presbyterian Church, New Orleans, LA

Prayer shawls travel the world

Elder Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) asked The Blessing Center to send “two or three shawls, (for) I would welcome the opportunity to ‘seed’ them as I travel. For instance, I will be traveling to Peru and Bolivia later this month, and I would love to take two with me to share with partners in ministry there.”

Rick has become acquainted with the Prayer Shawl ministry as it crops up all over the country and in many different denominations. Here is an excerpt from a post to his email list:

 “I spent my last morning at Crossroads Presbyterian Church, a growing, vibrant, exciting church just north of Milwaukee. As I rushed toward the car after the first service in order to make my flight, one of the women in the congregation stopped me to offer a prayer shawl. I didn't know anything about prayer shawls, but there is a movement of folks who pray for whoever will eventually receive the shawl they are making, and then who pray each stitch as something of a spiritual discipline as they work.

Mine was a large, soft, bluish-green shawl, and it was given to me with prayers for my time as moderator. As I flew to Baton Rouge, I...prayed and held the prayer shawl on my lap, and it occurred to me that it was a wonderful sign of all of the prayer and concern I have heard from Presbyterians as I've traveled…There was a card pinned to the shawl with a short prayer of support for those who receive it, and I read the prayer over and over as we flew. Here are the words to the prayer:

May God's grace be upon this shawl...warming, comforting, enfolding and embracing. May this mantle be a safe haven... a sacred place of security and well-being... sustaining and embracing in good times as well as difficult ones. May the one who receives this shawl be cradled in hope, kept in joy, graced with peace, and wrapped in love. Blessed Be!

Late on the afternoon of the 11th, I offered the shawl to Hawley Wolfe - the Moderator of the (South Louisiana) Presbytery - with the request that he pray on it himself for awhile, and then pass it on to someone else in the Presbytery to help sustain them. He draped it over the pulpit where we were gathered at First Presbyterian Church, and it remained there throughout the rest of the meeting and our worship. Two days later, I was headed for Mississippi and regretting the fact that I didn't have another shawl to offer. One of my stops there was to help dedicate a Tent Village for volunteers at Gautier Presbyterian Church on the coast. As we sat on folding chairs in the hot sun and waited for the dedication to begin, one of the women from the church said something to the other women sitting with us about their prayer shawls. I couldn't believe it. It turns out that their small church, like the large congregation in Mequon, WI, has a ministry of making prayer shawls…the shawl …handed me was almost exactly like the one I had left behind in South Louisiana, right down to the color of the yarn.

Prayerfully,
Rick
►Rick Ufford-Chase is Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

A Prayer Tent Story 

We had spoken in class about the way a prayer shawl can be the sign and symbol of a holy space. One wraps up in a shawl or scarf and feels surrounded by the care of a loving God as one prays. 

A moving insight came to a young father in that class. He told how his young son wanted to sit on his lap during their time of prayer.  The father would gently put his arms around his son and then they would pray. Sometimes they would ward off the chill by doing this inside a blanket, draped around them like a tent. 

Insight came as the father realized this: “I see now that in that moment I have become my son’s prayer shawl. I hover over him and around him just like a shawl would.

I am for him the form of the presence of his loving and caring God.”

May it warm those who are weary...

Randy, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Middletown, was moved by the gift of a Prayer Shawl to his mother when she was struggling with cancer. He shared the enclosure which came with the the shawl: 

This healing shawl is a gift to you.  It was knit by a member of Fellowship Church Knitting Ministry. Each time a woman picked up the yarn and needles to work on this shawl, she prayed: 'Creator God, may this shawl be a sign of your healing presence.  May it warm those who are weary, surround those who suffer and encircle those who are in pain.  May your gentle touch reach out to heal in the light of Christ.. Amen.'  We hope that the warmth of this shawl will bring you a sense of God's peace and healing, as well as the love of your church family, each time you wrap it around your shoulders!

Enfolded in God's love...

Rita shared, "My Dad really likes the prayer shawl we gave him for his (85th) birthday. I didn't know what he'd think, but he was using it all weekend, and I saw him reading the notes (that came with the shawl). As he's gotten older, his faith has become more   important to him, and I think the thought of being enfolded in God's love is comforting for him."

A blessing during a difficult time...

A response from an older woman who received a Prayer Shawl as she moved to live near a daughter, leaving the community in which she'd spent most of her life: 

"Words cannot express the pleasure I am feeling when I see and use the prayer shawl. It was such a blessing for me during this difficult time."

Prayer Shawls touch hearts with love... 

Some who receive Prayer Shawls are homebound, for various reasons. One wrote, to the knitter of hers: “When we had our picture taken together last fall and I admired your handiwork, little did I ever dream I would be the recipient of one of them. You would have no way of knowing that we raised sheep and for many years before his death, my husband and I worked with the local and state extension Sheep & Wool Improvement Association…So a wool shawl is wonderful.”

She went on to report the remarks of another who was given a Prayer Shawl, “she …told me of the gift from you and how happy she was with it and how much she admired (the giver, who was also the knitter).” 

And some who receive shawls do so for reasons of homelessness. Three women who were recent guests of Memorial Church, through the Interfaith Hospitality Program, each asked for and received a shawl amidst tears and hugs. The Shawls will go with them to their next guest residence and become a constant reminder that they are wrapped in the love of God and the prayers of others. 

Prayer Shawls Bring Comfort
by Kevin Lawler
Student Pastor
United Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio  

My mother was very pleased with her Prayer Shawl, which she says brings her comfort. 

Here is another story concerning a member of the church I serve:

I gave another Prayer Shawl to this person, and they were pleased. But, what was interesting was that another lady in our church made another shawl and gave it to me at church to give to one who is in need of comfort. I have a person in mind and when possible we will call her down front, present it to her, and lay on hands of healing. Her husband has Alzheimer's and it has been hard on her. I cannot imagine having the person you love be dead, yet have their living body with you on a daily basis.