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  A Prayer Diary

Knitting prayer shawls

3/5/2020

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I posted this also on my www.cottagebythesea.net blog.

​Ten years ago for my birthday a friend knit me a prayer shawl. Every morning I wrap it around my head and shoulders and in the evening I spread it from my feet to my neck;.  A year later, in 2011 when my mother died, my best friend (since we were two) knit me shawl. It, too, was long and cozy. I use both of these shawls every day.
     These two gifts, filled with warmth, love, and prayers, catapulted me into kitting prayer shawls. There are 17 recipients on my list, including the one I made much earlier for my friend Sarah when she was struggling with cancer. A few years ago her husband told me he puts it over his shoulders during his morning meditation. 
     Sometimes I start a shawl with a recipient in mind, but usually the person ‘appears’ as I knit. Usually it is for someone who is ill or has lost a loved one, or is having a personally hard time.
      Occasionally people tell me stories about some specific comfort they have received from their shawl, but usually the bond we have remains silent, which feels very sacred to me. The mystery is holy, but I do wonder. I wonder who is using the shawl I knit for a friend who has since died and whose family I’ve lost contact with? I wonder who is wearing the shawl that got lost in the laundry at a nursing home? I wonder if any shawl has made it to college? I have every reason to believe that each shawl, whatever its journey might be, is still sending forth love and prayers.
 
   A quick internet search will give you all the information you need. But here is what I do.
    Use 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun Yarns; cast on 63 stitches on # 11 needles.
    K3, P3; begin and end with K3.
    Before starting the third skein, cut about 120 16” piece for the fringe that you will add when you finish up the skein.

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Sitting and knitting with God

2/24/2018

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     Here is a recent question posed on the Society of St. John the Evangelist (www.ssje.org) Lenten series entitled Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of John.
What in my life needs help? Where can I not go it alone? Where do I need God’s help and love and provision in order to take the next step?” 
     My response: “I know some of the areas in my life where I need God's love and help because they are the ones I don't want to admit to anyone. But when I take the time with God, I seem to be able to disclose them to Him. Evening is a good time for me to talk with God and ask for God’s help. I sit and knit and we chat.”
    I want to go emphasize the comfort I feel during this sitting and knitting time, usually, but not always, at the end of the day before I go to bed. I think of it as my version of the Ignatian Examen, confession, or therapy. I go through the day, the good, bad and indifferent, starting with gratitudes. I discuss problems, pending decisions and sometimes just tell my story. The listeners are God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, whoever seems to appear.

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Delivering a prayer shawl~

9/6/2016

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     I just delivered a prayer shawl to a friend who is going through chemo. In fact, he has session tomorrow and is going to take the shawl with him. After leaving a voice message a few days ago telling him that I had a gift for him, I debated whether to make an appointment, or just take my luck and leave the shawl and a note. Well, of course it was a God moment. My friend was home and was so grateful.
     My new go-to activity to get out of my head is knitting. Jigsaw puzzles are on the back burner. I knit during my prayer time in the morning, when watching TV, while chatting with friends. I also just sit and knit and listen to what God wants to tell me. Sometimes, nothing. Just sit and be in God presence. It was at one of those moments that I heard who the shawl was for. Now I have a couple going, one easy, the other needing a little attention. I’m listening.
     (I didn’t take a picture of the shawl, but here are the two I’m praying on.)


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Knit, pray, knit~

5/10/2016

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     I have started knitting a prayer shawl, the first in several years. My beginning prayer is for many, because I don’t know who will receive the completed shawl. That doesn’t matter; God doesn’t care.
     I cast on stitches for my ninety-two year old cousin who just had heart surgery, for a friend’s wife undergoing chemo, for a church member recently widowed, for a fourteen year old boy with a rare brain tumor. I count the stitches and need ten more, so on I cast, praying that the nasty political rhetoric will cease. “How long, Lord, how long? I pray.” I knit, I pray, I knit.
     I will knit, and pray, and knit for a very long time.



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Knitting on track again~

7/19/2013

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I continually get off track with this prayer call of mine. Lately it had to do with knitting. Without realizing it, my mind started planning all kinds of items that I would knit using all kinds of intriguing stitches. I started reading knitting books (right now I have eight library books) and marking patterns I like; I started going on line to check out various yarns and yarn shops. I was having fun, but of course I was making no progress on my two prayer shawls.

    Now, don’t get me wrong. Nothing I was doing was bad, and I’m all for having this kind of fun. But something didn’t feel right; I was straying from God’s call, and it was God who was calling me back. Knit prayer shawls, learn new stitches, discover new yarns, but pray prayer shawls.

      I picked up the needles and began.


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Beginning a prayer shawl~

5/23/2013

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I started a new prayer shawl yesterday. I bought the yarn and needles the day before but waited until the following morning, when I was alert, when the house was silent, to begin. There are many suggested rituals for beginning a new shawl, but I knew that too many would distract me from my desire for purposeful prayer. Silence, solitude and simplicity is the only setting that I need.

     Calm down, take some deep breaths, clear the mind of chatter. Ask God the Creator to work among my fingers and the yarn; call on Jesus to walk with the people I’m praying for; invoke the Holy Spirit to be with me during this ministry time.  


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Prayer shawls~

5/22/2013

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I’ve started knitting prayer shawls again. A while back I knit shawls for Sarah, Sally and Edie to wrap around themselves and their cancer. My friends are no more, which is often the way it is with prayer shawls: you knit, pray for healing, knit, pray for acceptance, knit, pray for a peaceful passing. For family and friends the shawl remains because the prayer goes on.  

       The shawl I made for my friend Sarah is around her husband’s shoulders every morning during his meditation time. I don’t know about the other two; I don’t need to know. I trust that they are just where they are meant to be. Two friends have made me shawls: one for my birthday, the other when my mother died. I can feel the prayer that they knit with every stitch.

      I’m amazed at how knitting has deepened my prayer time. I picked up a shawl that I started five years ago, and started knitting, knit three, pearl three, and started praying, a row for each person on my top ten prayer list. Just one of the many ways to do it. Others will evolve.

      If you need suggestions, prayers, patterns, encouragement, check out http://www.shawlministry.com/ As I mentioned on my cottage by the sea blog, knitting prayer shawls embraces silence, solitude and simplicity.


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