Starting Prayer

© 2008 All rights reserved 

By: Pamela Stiff

Dear Lord,
Take away all my negative thoughts and feelings as I work on this shawl of comfort for ___________. Guide my hands as they work and keep my thoughts positive and centered around her. I make each stitch with love and a prayer in my heart for her comfort, hope, and healing. May __________ feel Your loving arms around her as she wears this shawl and may it represent to her Your power to heal any hurt. Comfort her, Bless her, Heal Her/Him. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen

Shawl Blessing For Baptism

© 2008 All rights reserved

In the beginning, creating God, you formed my being.
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
To my flesh and blood you gave the breath of Life.
O loving One, we celebrate this day, gift of your love.
You have granted life as gift of your faithfulness to all generations.  Grant your light to journey by; grant your hope to sustain my becoming all that I can be.
Bless my parents and all parenting, that Wisdom will guide your children to will and to work for good to the benefit of all living on this planet home. May this wrap, whether for nurture, warmth, or security, be a gentle reminder of my prayer and Your presence and love with us always.

St. Patrick Church - Starting Prayer - Sickness 

© 2008 All rights reserved

by Darcy Horon –Siepman

Dear Lord,

Bless these needles that they stay strong and light so they don't tire the hands that wield them;
Bless this yarn with strength and softness that it will form a cloth of warmth and comfort;
Bless these hands with strength and skill so they may make well crafted gifts; Bless this heart with strength and perseverance so I will see this work through to bring comfort to those in need; But most of all dear Lord, Bless the wearer of this cloth with strength and comfort that their burdens may be lightened and their hearts gladdened with the realization that they are loved.

 Psalm 90:17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Gathering Prayer and Blessing

(for group work)

As we gather in community to share our prayer, our stories, the work of our hearts and hands, we pray for God's blessing on our endeavors:
A blessing to my mind - to be free to enter this time of contemplative activity... A blessing to my hands - to be the source of creating something of beauty and love... A blessing to my soul - to be open to the promptings of loving and caring...  A blessing to my yarn - to be shaped into patterns of loving and caring...  A blessing to my needles - to be the holders of stitches as they become a whole garment... A blessing to my knitting - to be a work of heart and hands, body and spirit...  A blessing on the one who will receive the fruit of my prayer and my knitting... May this shawl be welcomed in the spirit in which it was knitted... May we become one with the One who knitted each of us in our mother's womb...  I join my blessing, my prayer and my knitting with women all over the earth in this common effort to bring healing and wholeness, comfort and celebration.

Prayer for Healing

Surgery/Illness

© 2008 All rights reserved

In the beginning, creating God, you formed my being.  You knit me together in my mother's womb.  To my flesh and blood you gave the breath of life.
O loving One, renew me this day in your love, grant me life as gift of Your faithfulness;
grant me light to journey by; grant me hope to sustain me.
May this mantle be for me a sign of Your healing presence.  May it warm me when I am weary;  may it surround me with ease of my suffering; may it encircle me with caring when I am in pain.  O Christ who healed the broken in body and spirit, be with me and all who suffer this day. Be with the doctors, nurses, technicians, chaplains and all who care for the sick.  Be with families and friends of those abiding with and comforting the sick.
May Your gentle, yet strong touch reach out to heal all the broken
and hurting people and places in our world.

Prayer for Comfort

Grief/Death of Loved One

© 2008 All rights reserved

As you wrap yourself in the prayer shawl of comfort...
May the Mother of Mercy, the Father of Faithfulness and the Spirit of Compassion
wrap you in their all-encompassing love this day.  May you find comfort
from all that appears too much to bear at this moment    from all that feels as if it might be the breaking point    from all that seems to threaten your peace of heart.
 May this prayer shawl be a shelter for time of overwhelming grief
 a shade in times of sorrow too deep for words a shield from times of unimaginable loss.
 May you be comforted by the presence of those who love and support you by faith in the eternal Loving One by the memories of what you hold most dear.
 May you be strengthened    in your daily comings and goings in your tentative new     beginnings  in your unfolding new memories.  Blessings of the Angel of Comfort be with you and all you love now and forevermore.

Shawl Blessing For Marriage

© 2008 All rights reserved

In celebration of the love, hopes, and dreams the two of you bring to this new dimension in your relationship-a gift, made for you with love.

As you wrap yourselves in it together, may it be for you a gentle reminder that
You are loved and cherished,
You are gifted and giving,
You share the riches of life experience;
You are knit together with the Creator,
the one who is with you always,
and with all those whose lives touch yours.
May this shawl be for you useful...
For fun, for love, for making up, for making decisions,
For comfort, for warmth
For strengthening your Togetherness.
May love and blessings flow from your new life
together to touch this world anew.

 Shawl Blessing For Baptism

© 2008 All rights reserved

In the beginning, creating God, you formed my being.
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
To my flesh and blood you gave the breath of Life.
O loving One, we celebrate this day, gift of your love.
You have granted life as gift of your faithfulness to all generations.  Grant your light to journey by; grant your hope to sustain my becoming all that I can be.
Bless my parents and all parenting, that Wisdom will guide your children to will and to work for good to the benefit of all living on this planet home.
May this wrap, whether for nurture, warmth, or security, be a gentle reminder of my prayer and Your presence and love with us always.