Mission Statement: The Prayer Shawl Ministry knits and crochets 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 which 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 gifted. We formed one prayer shawl ministry (made up from members of St. Gabriel Prayer shawl ministry and St. Joseph prayer shawl ministry) when we became the combined St. Damien of Molokai Parish.
The Prayer Shawl Ministry currently consists of approximately 15-20 active members. We usually meet the 1st Monday of the month at 1:00 pm at St. Gabriel hall from September through May. Our last meeting for this year is May 1st.
Our members continue to make things during the summer as well so when we resume our meetings in September we usually will have a large number of shawls to be blessed.
After each meeting we bring any finished Prayer Shawls to the rectory to be blessed by Father Daly. Most of them are then stored in the rectory though we have started putting some in the prayer shawl closet at St. Joseph Church for those that need a Prayer Shawl and cannot make it to the rectory during business hours.
Contacts: Pat Carpenter pacarp@cox.net or
Denise Novak denisensw@gmail.com
To date this year we have given out approximately 45 shawls.
