Prayers
It is important to us that the origins of this ministry be honored. The information on this site is provided freely for your personal use. If you would like to duplicate, distribute, or display any part of this material you must contact the Shawl Ministry first. All copied material should have the Shawl Ministry web address (www.shawlministry.com) and credit given to its authors. © 2006
Beginning To Knit Dedication © 2006 All Rights Reserved
By: Janet Bristow - 2000
Mantle of Love, Healer of Hearts,
I light this candle as a reminder of Your presence as I begin.
I ask a blessing from all who have come before me;
whose hands have been instruments of creation and beauty;
who have used humble tools and hand-spun wool in order to provide cover and warmth for
themselves and those they loved;
who have felt, as I will feel, the yarn in their fingers;
who have seen, as I will see, the growth of the fabric;
who have heard, as I will hear, the click of the needles.
Guide my attention to stay on course.
Hold me close and ground me.
Bless, also, this yarn and these knitting needles.
May any negative energy connected to them be cast away as I cast on;
and all positive energy bound in as I bind off.
In their simplicity, may I find comfort and solace.
Bless my hands...
Often just appendages at the end of my arms...
workers doing their job without appreciation...looked at, yet not really seen.
These instruments of love have done mundane tasks, yet also create beauty.
They reach out, touch, stroke, scrub, lift, grasp, gesture and guide.
These hands, my hands, gifts of great importance,
Blessing be on them and in them as I begin.
May the fruits of their labor be good!
Prayer Of Blessing (blessing for a completed shawl)
© 2006 All rights reserved.
By: Janet Bristow - 2000
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!
Ariadne's Blessing © 2006 All rights reserved.
By: Janet Bristow - 1998
Holy One,
Whose womb is threaded and waiting, guide us to pick up the thread
and walk the spiral through the dark and difficult passages.
Life Cord,
Who sustains us as we move to our center, give us courage to meet our souls.
Comfort us through our dismantling, wrapped in Your loving embrace.
Mantle of Love,
Rebirth us with Wisdom, as we are knitted once again back into wholeness.
Starting Prayer © 2006 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. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen
Gathering Prayer and Blessing (for group work) © 2006 All rights reserved
By: Cathleen O'Meara Murtha, DW
www.shawlministry.comAs 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.