Prayer Shawl Stories Archives - Sharon J Mondragon

Scraps of Beauty

Sharon Mondragon — Tue, 26 May 2020 03:13:54 +0000

Knitters have been busy while sheltering in place. On Facebook, I’ve seen pictures of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) that have languished in drawers, closets, and the bottom of knitting bags for months or even years, completed at last. What a boost to finish a project! It can be a challenge to see a project through. Prayer shawl makers are no strangers to the elation of binding off that last stitch, attaching that last piece of the fringe, ready at last to comfort and encourage a hurting or fainting heart.

When it’s time to make another one, we often go to the yarn that folks have donated to our ministry. Most of us have a corner of church storage for the prayer shawl ministry yarn stash. Some of us even carry donated yarn around in the trunks of our cars (I wouldn’t know anything about that!). Sometimes people bring us new yarn, but more often than not, it’s the half skeins left over from other projects. It keeps us creative, coming up with ways to combine colors and patterns to make beautiful shawls with what we’re given. And sometimes, in the midst of the donated stash of a beloved mother or grandmother, we find a UFO.

Jeanie Taylor of Grace Lutheran Church in Pensacola, Florida recently wrote to me about her experience with a rather challenging UFO. In a bag of donated yarn, she found ten crocheted strips in various lengths and various shades of brown. As she wondered what to do with them, she got “The Nudge” as a still, small voice encouraged her to use them as part of a lap robe with an abstract design. It took some doing, but she made something beautiful out of scraps that someone else might have bundled into the trash.

The year 2020 so far also has us scratching our heads and wondering what to do with the pieces of life the pandemic has left us with. How do we put them together to make a new kind of life, one that is both functional and beautiful? I urge you to ask God what to do and then to listen, as Jeanie did, for the answer.

Jeanie has given me permission to publish the full account of her UFO experience, which includes the directions. Look for it on next week’s blog. In the meantime, I’d love to see and hear about how you turn the partial skeins and UFOs in your stash into warm and beautiful shawls. Email me at
sharonjmondragon@gmail.com

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A Heavenly Hug

Sharon Mondragon — Sat, 02 May 2020 14:41:52 +0000

Like many sheltering in place knitters, I’ve been tapping into my stash for yarn for prayer shawls these days. A few weeks ago I pulled out some yarn has been unable to tell me what it wants to be for three years. As I tried again with this pattern and that pattern, I found myself fretting. It seemed important to make a shawl with this yarn now, and the yarn was being really picky. The stripes the yarn kept forming just didn’t look right. My Google newsfeed, however, came to the rescue. In addition to news, I also receive articles about knitting and teasers for patterns. A free shawl pattern from Expressions Fiber Arts caught my eye. It’s called Palette and comes out shaped something like a parallelogram, which meant the stripes would lean artistically instead of going straight across. I downloaded the pattern (thank you, Expressions Fiber Arts!) and set off on my new shawl journey. To my delight, the yarn was very happy with the pattern. As for me, I loved the fabric the pattern created–soft and squishy. I thought about how comforting it would be for the person who received it, whoever God had in mind.
I soon learned who it was. One of my prayer shawl buddies, caregiver for her husband, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, missed our weekly Zoom meeting. When I contacted her, Ruth said that even though she’d been looking forward to it all week, she’d forgotten, because the disruption of their routine has really taken its toll on the both of them. One thing that had been helping them both a great deal before the pandemic was a wonderful respite program called The Friends Place, where her husband went three days a week to visit with others and participate in activities. Without the routine of going to The Friends Place, both my friend and her husband were struggling. I wondered what I could do for them to break up the monotony and give them both a change of scene. As I pondered this and asked some other prayer shawl buddies for ideas, I realized that the shawl I was making, so soft and squishy that it was the essence of a hug, was for Ruth. My joy in making this shawl deepened as I knitted.
Last Wednesday, my husband and I arranged a driveway visit with Ruth and her husband Roger. Ruth and I stood on opposite sides of the driveway, stretched out our arms and hugged each other from afar. The four of us shared news, chatted, and most importantly, laughed. One of my long-distance prayer shawl buddies had told me how music really helps Alzheimer’s patients, so I loaned them a collection of 60s music for Roger and some calm, contemplative music for Ruth. The visit was a heart lift for all four of us.
We visited again this Thursday, bringing Ruth’s completed shawl with us. Amidst the joyful news that The Friends Place was now doing activities via Zoom, I handed Ruth the bag with her shawl in it. If you’re a prayer shawl maker, you won’t be surprised to hear that the yarn I bought and struggled with three years ago turns out to be in the colors Ruth loves best. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the wonder of making prayer shawls–the nudges from the Holy Spirit, listening to God through listening to the yarn, the miracle of timing–and the joy on my friend Ruth’s face.

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Angels, Warriors, and Other Prayer Shawl Makers

Sharon Mondragon — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 12:10:32 +0000

While we’ve all been sheltering in place, trying to slow the spread of COVID-19, I’ve been travelling. No, I haven’t been taking my life and the lives of others into my hands, but I’ve let my fingers do the walking to prayer shawl groups all over the country. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that lately I’ve been visiting prayer shawl groups via their church websites. I love to see the photos of prayer shawl makers at work and the photos of the work of their hands–shawls arrayed along communion rails ready to be blessed or piled on tables with smiling faces peering over the top.
In the course of my travels, I’ve come across some wonderful names for prayer shawl groups. There’s Skeins and Scones (yum!) at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, Angel Hands at The Episcopal Church of the Advent in Lillian, Alabama (I can see their hands moving like angel wings as they work), and Knit Unto Others at Christ Episcopal Church in Winchester, Virginia. And little did I know when I began to write my prayer shawl novel, The Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry back in 2014 that there is a real Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in South Windsor, Connecticut!
There are several groups named the Knit Wits and if they’re anything like the Knit Wits at North Decatur Presbyterian in Decatur, Georgia, they’re a lot of fun. The Decatur ladies have included me in their quarantine email banter and I appreciate the chance to laugh in the midst of this trying time. As Proverbs 17:22 tells us, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”
And then there are the Warrior Women of Wesley United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas. I love the image that their name evokes of prayer shawl makers wielding their needles, hooks, and prayers against sickness, sorrow, and despair. Although our ministry looks quite gentle as we sit and stitch, it is also quite a courageous one. We look difficult situations in the face–serious illness, the deep sadness of loss, and heart-wrenching ordeals–and then we pray, stitching our prayers into a reminder that no matter what happens, God is near and He cares.
Hold this truth close to your heart as you stitch and pray through this time. God is near and He cares.

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Knitting in the Time of Corona Virus

Sharon Mondragon — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 03:07:31 +0000

This new virus seems to be far-reaching, not only as it spreads across the world, but as trying to control its spread reaches into our lives. We’ve been told that the best thing most of us can do is stay home. In staying home, we have a choice to make. Do we let fear, anxiety, and uncertainty overwhelm us OR do we take up our needles and hooks and yarn to calm our hearts and pray our way through this? I vote for knitting and praying. I’ve heard that worry is like a rocking chair–it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. The great thing about knitting and crocheting prayer shawls is that it gives us something productive to do with our hands while we turn our worries into prayers. The knitting will calm us and the prayers will not only strengthen our hearts, but reach out into the world with God’s mighty love and power.

While knitting is something we most often do in the comfort of our own living rooms, it is also a social activity for many of us. I meet with two prayer shawl groups (one at a church and the other at a local coffee shop), teach beginning knitting at a local yarn shop on Monday evenings, and am a regular at Thursday Knit Night at Ewe2 Yarn. Covid-19 has, of course, thrown a monkey wrench into meeting up with my knitting friends. Our lively and well-attended Knit Nights have been suspended for the time being, as have knitting lessons and both prayer shawl group meetings.

Doing things we love and enjoy with the people we love and enjoy is important for our mental and emotional health. In this time of social distancing, it’s more important than ever to stay connected. We can call and text, but technology has given us even more tools to help with this. At the suggestion of one of our members, our coffee shop group tackled and conquered the online meeting application, Zoom this past Friday. There was a learning curve for some of us (especially me!) but I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to be able to see each other, chat, and show each other our work. However you do it, keep in touch, cheer each other up, and cheer each other on!

Lastly, I’m concerned about the precautions we have to take around others. No handshakes, no hugging, no physical contact with people outside of our immediate households. These precautions can keep us safe physically, but can be hard on us mentally and emotionally, especially for those who live alone. Humans beings need physical touch. I think prayer shawls can help with this, too. We make them with love and prayer so that a person can wrap him or herself in a prayer shawl and sense the love and care of God. We tell others they are a hug from God. Now, more than ever, is the time to wrap ourselves in our prayer shawls to enjoy the encouraging solace of His presence.

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Prayer Shawl Ministry–Where Courage and Kindness Meet

Sharon Mondragon — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 23:27:21 +0000

The creation of a prayer shawl is, at its core, an act of faith. We spend hours knitting or crocheting, often with no idea who will receive it, no idea why it is needed, no idea what God has planned for it. We work the yarn, pray, and leave the rest to God. We may hear about it after it’s been given, often in the form of a thank you note. We don’t usually see the impact a shawl has the person who received it. Regardless, we knit and pray on, trusting God to deliver each shawl into the right hands at the right moment in time.
Sometimes, though, we catch a glimpse of a prayer shawl at work. Mary Flynn, a prayer shawl maker in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, recently shared a prayer shawl story with me that took my breath away. One of her friends worked in a nursing home and often spoke about residents who had very few visitors. Mary shared her friend’s concern, so she took some shawls from her prayer shawl ministry over to the nursing home. She visited with residents her friend picked out, ones who rarely had company, giving each one a shawl. One woman made a particularly deep impression on Mary:
“As I gave her the shawl and explained about it, she started to cry and said, ‘I thought God had forgotten about me.'”

Such a simple thing, a visit to a person in a nursing home. Such a simple thing, the gift of a prayer shawl. Yet these two gifts brought a sense of the loving presence of God to a lonely heart that had despaired of mattering to Him.

Keep making those shawls. Keep pouring the love of God into your work as you stitch and pray. Keep sending shawls out into the world. Trust that God knows what He wants to do with each and every one of your creations: something good and kind, something strong and loving, that will bring a sense of His presence near to help someone keep going, because prayer shawl ministry is the place where courage and kindness meet.

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A Feathered Thunderbolt

Sharon J Mondragon — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:09:12 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I recently made a pair of prayer shawls for my cousin Cindy to use in her addiction counseling practice. After I finished them, I took them to church, where my pastor blessed them. Each member of the congregation laid a hand on them in prayer on the way to the rail for Communion. The next day, I tucked them into a box and mailed them off to my cousin.
I was just starting to wonder if the box had arrived safely (and discovering I’d misplaced the tracking number) when Cindy’s letter arrived. Not only a thank you card, but a two-page letter to go with it. She wanted to tell me about her experience when she put the pink and white shawl around her own shoulders:

“When I wrapped myself in it, a jolt of energy (like a feathered thunderbolt) rushed through me, my inner core was enveloped in intensifying warmth, the color pink shot through my mind, swirling around my thoughts, then blue covered me, leading off into the most beautiful cloud of green.” She went on to explain that for her the pink symbolized love, the blue protection and the green was for healing.
“Once I caught my breath,” she continued, “prayers of gratitude verbally took over, leading to humbleness of my whole heart, my spirit and mind. I felt that I had transcended into a realm of blessings, grace and deep understanding of all the love and intention of every knitted pearl…Know that the use of these shawls are indeed an inner miracle awaiting the client, offering a bestowed gift of pure healing, courage and strength. Wow!”

I, too, say, “Wow!” This is the first time anyone has told me that a prayer shawl I made had this effect on them. And yet, why should I be amazed? In my blog entitled, “Your Two Hands,” I wrote about how each shawl comes through the shawl maker from God, how His love, compassion and His own experience of suffering are poured into each stitch. Every shawl I make is steeped in prayer, but the ones I sent to Cindy are more personal than most. For many years I could only watch and pray in anguish as one of my sons pursued a life of addiction. The heartbreak of those years is knitted into those shawls along with my longing for all the sons and daughters enslaved by drugs to be free. Please pray with me for these folks on their difficult journey.
Cindy says, “I’ve yet to experience the power in the second shawl. I’ll write you when I do or watch when the client does!” I’m excited to see how God’s going to show up in Cindy’s practice. I’ll keep you posted!

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The Journey of a Shawl (and a Shawl Maker)

Sharon Mondragon — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 22:04:11 +0000

This past March, my friend, Cindy Helton, arrived at Fresh (the local coffee shop where my church’s prayer shawl group meets) with yarn and needles in hand, ready to learn to knit. She caught on quickly and was soon at work on her first prayer shawl. This past Friday afternoon, a cheer went up from our prayer shawl group as she bound off the final stitch of her very first prayer shawl. Our pastor, Father Terry, blessed the completed shawl on Sunday..
The small table on which it rested remained in the center aisle, where people laid gentle, loving hands on it on their way to the communion rail. Moments after the Benediction, it was claimed as a gift for a man named Charlie, who suffers from ALS (a neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

On Monday morning, Cindy sent me the poem she wrote about her experience of creating her first prayer shawl. It so poignantly expresses the journey and the relationship between knitter, yarn, and loving purpose that I asked her if I could share it with all of you. She said yes!

The Prayer Shawl

When I first met you
I was drawn to your color,
your texture, the feel of you.

The bamboo wands were ready
to conduct us on our journey.
Neither of us could fathom
the look of its completion.

Inch by inch our dance began,
fumbling at first as we
struggled to find our rhythm;
anxious about mistakes.

There was no rush.
No demands from either of us.
Yet a longing settled in
To reach our destination.

Months passed.
Familiarity grew.
Our souls became friends.
Our pace increased.

From another shore a presence called;
At first a whisper, then an urgent plea.
Comfort was sought. Shelter required.
Our destiny was at hand.

The day we parted was bitter sweet
As the blessing was imparted
we knew we’d never see each
other again…except
in the echoes of our memory.

Your transformation will tangibly
wrap a being in warmth and love.
My own will be more sure,
more steady…more ready
to start again.

27 January 2020
Cynthia Helton.

My prayer is that this poem will encourage you wherever you are on your prayer shawl journey, not only to finish your shawl, but to let the process transform your heart as you transform yarn into a refuge for someone in need of comfort and strength.
Blessings,
Sharon

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Knitting Buddies

Sharon Mondragon — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 03:45:31 +0000

I first discovered the joy of knitting with friends when my husband was stationed at Ft. Gordon, Georgia. I joined the prayer shawl ministry of our church, Holy Comforter Episcopal because I love to knit and I hoped to make some friends. The ladies of the Hands of Comfort Prayer Shawl Ministry welcomed me with open arms. I loved listening to the soft-around-the-edges Southern voices of these chatting, laughing, encouraging women. Among them, I grew as a knitter, as the more accomplished knitters in the group inspired me to venture into more complex patterns. I soon learned that being part of this group was about more than knitting, however. It was about reaching out to the world for whom we were making the shawls. When this group started, the pastor made one stipulation: instead of meeting at the church, the Hands of Comfort would have to meet in a public place to knit together. The experience of knitting in community out in the community (for us, the café of a local health food store) inspired my novel, THE HEAVENLY HUGS PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY.
It wasn’t easy to leave my prayer shawl friends behind when my husband retired from the Army and we moved back to Texas. Our new church had a prayer shawl ministry, but everyone knitted on their own and then brought their shawls to church. Where was I going to find knitting buddies? My search led me to The Circle of Healing Prayer Shawl Ministry at Red Oak United Methodist Church in nearby Red Oak, Texas. I have felt comfortable and welcome among them from the very first meeting I attended. Even though my church now has a prayer shawl group that meets weekly, I still knit with my Methodist friends whenever I can. Below you can see some of the Red Oak prayer shawl makers at one of their bi-monthly get togethers.

At my own church (St, Paul Episcopal), prayer shawl makers still create shawls at home, but those of us who can now meet at a local coffee shop on Fridays to knit, crochet, and share our lives with each other. We are a small group, but, excuse the pun, tight-knit. We share what’s on our hearts as we knit and crochet together–joys and sorrows, hopes and challenges, worries and answers to prayer. They have become my close confidants, supportive friends, and wise advisors.
Then there is Knit Night at the local yarn shop. It’s an open circle of knitters that meets at Ewe2 Yarn, located in an ever-expanding corner of Farmhouse Antiques in Waxahachie. We gather at the shop on Thursday evenings from 5-8. At Knit Night, I’ve met a dazzling array of knitters– beginners, experts, and all skill levels in between. Some are quiet, letting the swirl of talk and laughter flow around them as they work. Others are boisterous, full of stories and quips that keep us laughing. All are generous with help, encouragement, and sympathy when things go awry, both in our knitting and in our lives.
Lately, I find my circle of knitting friends expanding exponentially. My agent is always looking for ways to help me build my platform, since these days, publishers want to know that there is an audience for a writer’s work before they invest in publishing it. Her latest idea is to send letters to prayer shawl groups all over the country to invite prayer shawl makers to visit and subscribe to my website. As a result, I’ve spent hours poring over the pages on church websites devoted to their prayer shawl ministries. I read these pages and feel a kinship; each group’s heart for comforting and encouraging people going through difficult times is the same as mine. There are often photographs of the prayer shawl makers at work. As I look into their faces, I realize that they, too, are my knitting buddies. I could walk into any of their gatherings with my knitting bag and a prayer shawl-in-progress and be welcomed as warmly as I was in the Circle of Healing five years ago. I could sit down in their midst, my needles whispering in prayer and feel completely at home. These are the people about whom and for whom I wrote THE HEAVENLY HUGS PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY. I long more than ever for this book to find a publishing home, so I can share this story with prayer shawl makers everywhere.

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In the Shelter of a Shawl

Sharon J Mondragon — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:20:10 +0000

My cousin Cindy is an addiction counselor. During a recent visit, I listened to her tell about her work with addicts. I was struck that one of the most important things she focuses on in counseling is honesty. I know this is important, not only for addicts, but for those who love them. I know this because one of my sons began his descent into addiction as a teenager, still living in our home. For families, the early years of addiction are a dance of denial. We really don’t want to see the truth, refuse to believe it’s happening in our family, to the child we have loved and thought we were raising well. If the whole thing is hard for a family to admit, it’s doubly hard for someone abusing drugs and/or alcohol. It becomes a vicious cycle, because those substances allow the user to run away from whatever is troubling him or her, at least for a little while, instead of admitting, facing, and dealing with it. To hear Cindy tell it, a lot of addiction counseling deals with honestly facing reality. My hat is off to any addict who does this, as reality is difficult for all of us. My son, who is recovering now, recently told me, “Life is hard sober.” “Life is hard, period,” I told him ruefully.

I’ve thought about the daunting and challenging journey of recovery, how scary and painful it is to face the truth from which drugs have provided a respite, a fleeting escape. I’ve thought about what I can do to help. I don’t think I’m called, as Cindy is, to be a counselor, but there is something I (and you) can do to support those who are engaged in the daunting work of recovery. Below is a picture of the shawls I sent off this week to Cindy to use in her practice. My hope and prayer is that people facing hard truths and struggling to be free will sense God’s presence giving them courage and strength in the shelter of a prayer shawl.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

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A Pocketful of Prayer

Sharon J Mondragon — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 20:42:41 +0000

School starts up again this week in our corner of Texas. The teachers have decorated their rooms and prepared their lesson plans. Students have a new outfit or two and have checked off every item on the supply list. Pencils…check. Composition books…check. Folders…check. Crayons, markers, and colored pencils…check. Everything’s ready. We have everything we need, right?
This Sunday at church, we gave our teachers and students two more things that will equip and sustain them for the coming school year. We gathered our teachers and students at the front of the church to be blessed and prayed for. Then each of them received an embodiment of the prayers prayed over them–a pocket prayer shawl. This tiny version of the prayer shawl is small enough to fit in a pocket, a pencil box, or a backpack. As a student faces the challenges and frustrations of learning new things, the pocket prayer shawl serves as a reminder that God is with him, that He will help her, that their church family is praying for their success. The sight of a pocket prayer shawl propped on a teacher’s desk can encourage a teacher on a tough day.

Beyond the Classroom
Other settings lend themselves to pocket prayer shawls. My husband received a red, white, and blue one right before his deployment to Baghdad in 2010. Tucking that tiny expression of prayer, love, and support into the left front pocket of his ACUs became part of his morning getting-ready-for-work ritual that he continued even after he returned home safely from his year-long service overseas. Now retired from his career as an Army physician, he continues to care for patients at a faith-based clinic for the underinsured and uninsured in our area. He keeps a supply of pocket prayer shawls at work to give to patients who need courage and the assurance that they are not alone in the difficulties they face.
I carried some with me in my briefcase at the writers’ conference where I pitched my novel, The Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry for the first time. I’d . As those of us signed up to speak to this agent waited, we talked about our work…and our nerves. There was so much riding on this one conversation with an agent. I gave several of my fellow sufferers pocket prayer shawls. Later that day, one of the writers found me to share her good news. Holding the shawl while she told the agent about her book had helped her stay calm, she said. Her face glowed as she told me that the agent asked her to send the full manuscript for consideration.

A Small Thing?
Pocket prayers shawls may be tiny, but their effect can be mighty. You can pack a lot of prayer into the hour it takes to knit one. Interested in learning how to make a pocket prayer shawl? Let me know in the comments section. If there is enough interest, I’ll post the pattern in my next blog!

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