Prayer shawls

[tobbias88]

Very early on Christians realized that external trappings & trimmings mattered very little in the matter of Faith, belief & worship. Wearing a skull cap or shawl does not make you a good Jew - much less on a good Christian.
I have attended Mass in remote areas where the congregation was virtually naked( by western standards) yet they were probably much better RCs than me having trekked many miles thru the jungle to attend Mass & receive Jesus.
Externals count for little in matters of the heart & conscience.

 

[deedward]

My wife heads up a “prayer shawl” group at a local OF parish. Yes, men are sometimes the recipiants of these shawls. So far everyone that has been given a shawl has been most thankful for the prayers that have gone into the making of them. Our local Catholic priest Blesses them before the ladies give them away.

We do not have a group making these, and I would love to purchase one from a catholic …Can you tell me how I may obtain one ?

Either way, thanks for your post <3

 

[LilyM]

NO REALLY???
You’re so smart that you ought to have your own blog!!!

Anyway, Jesus surly wore one, and if the Catholic Church claims to be founded by Jesus Christ, should we not model him in our worship. And yes I am referring to the Jewish head covering called a Tallit used during prayer.

Jesus was unmarried and childless. We’d be in a real pickle if ALL Christian men without exception followed His example on that one!

Paul instructs Christian men (many of whom would have been Jews prior to converting) to UNcover their heads in church. Christians take his words to be inspired scripture, and thus Christian men do not consider themselves obligated to cover their heads.

 

[OraLabora]

ByzCath,

To answer your question; the group receives requests from various folks on the prayer chain at the parish. Our priest also includes names. The names are usually those who are sick, dying or have experienced a recent tragedy. The ladies then meet every other week and pray while they knit or crochet the shawl or lap-ghans. The ladies try to use very soft yarns so that they feel very warm and enveloping. As they get a shawl done our priest Blesses them and one of the ladies presents them to the recipiant. The group has made their own cards to go with the prayer shawl, so it is a very personalized thing.

I have always been a skeptic and wary of this sort of thing so I asked both our OF priest and our EF priest how they viewed these “prayer shawl” groups as they seemed kind of protestant to me. Much to my wife’s delight both priest highly approved them.

So much for being a skeptic!

Well I think I can understand what the good ladies are trying to do. A few years ago when going through my “dark night of the soul” I had this large sheepskin blanket on my bed. I would pull it up to my ears on cold nights. I called it my “Jesus blanket” because it was the only time I felt safe, warm, secure and enveloped by His love. I would really look forward to bedtime for this reason after frustrating days at work and in married life.

Fortunately those frustrations have largely passed, my wife and I have renewed our marriage, and being older, I now look forward to bed simply because at the end of the day, I’m very tired

But I’ll always remember the secure feeling it gave me, and I can appreciate a prayer shawl would do the same thing. Maybe I should try go get one, because like most folks I still have bad days from time to time.