The Prayer Shawl Ministry mission is to knit and crochet shawls (lap robes or blankets) for men, women and children at the request of parishioners. While we knit or crochet, we pray for the recipient. We also say a prayer for the recipient after a shawl has been given. We knit for the sick, the sad, the lonely, the elderly, for people caring for a loved one, for anyone that will be cheered by receiving a prayerful gift. Or it can be given to celebrate a special event like an anniversary, birthday or christening.

We provide prayer shawls, lap robes and baby blankets that we knit or crochet--they provide prayers, warmth, love and blessings to the sick, bereaved, elderly and babies. We gather together monthly and say our prayers over our items both as a group and individually and then the items are blessed by our Priests before being given away. We formed one prayer shawl ministry (made up from members of St Gabriel Prayer shawl ministry and St Joseph prayer shawl ministry) when our Parish became St Damien.

Our next meeting is December 4th 2023.

We have approximately 15-20 active members currently. We meet most of the time the first Monday of the month at 1:00 pm at St Gabriel hall for the months of September trough May. Our members continue to make things during the summer so when we meet again in September there are usually a large number of shawls to be blessed.

After each meeting we bring any finished shawls to the rectory to be blessed by Father. Most of them are then stored in the rectory thought we have started putting some in the prayer shawl closet at St Joseph Church for those that need a shawl and cannot make it to the rectory during business hours.

Contact: Pat Carpenter pacarp@cox.net