Prayer Shawls and Prayer Blankets - A Catholic Perspective

Some of the parishes in my diocese have been making and distributing prayer shawls, or prayer blankets. After seeing some of the beautiful prayer shawl patterns and yarns being promoted for this purpose by the yarn companies, as well as having friends invite me to assist in their blanket making, I decided I had best do some checking on the "orthodoxy" of this new work of mercy. It seemed a bit new age, not to mention a great way for the yarn companies to increase their sales!

According to the shawlministry.com web site, Janet Bristow and Victoria Galo conceived the idea of prayer shawls after having graduated from the 1997 Women's Leadership Institute, a program on Applied Feminist Spirituality at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut. The web site refers to shawls as being "symbolic of an inclusive, unconditionally loving, God" (Janet Bristow, 1998), and like the "unconditional embrace of a sheltering, mothering God." The site suggests that the shawls can be given, amongst other things, for "leading ritual" and "croning rites of passage." That sounds a bit pagan, or new age, to me. If it is new age, how can Catholics promote the practice of prayer shawls in our church?

The web site, sthubert.org (St. Hubert Catholic Church, Hoffman Estates, Illinois) says their blankets are given to "provide hope, comfort and healing to those who most need a reminder of God's love for them through the work of our hands and the prayers of our hearts."

A blanket, in and of itself, provides warmth and comfort. A blanket made by a loved one reminds us that we are loved. The person making a prayer shawl or blanket is asked, in addition, to pray for the recipient before beginning it, while working on it, and after finishing it. Praying for someone is a good thing. We know that in addition to praying as we work, we can offer the very work itself for the good of another. In the Catholic Church prayer blankets and shawls are also usually imparted a blessing from a priest or a deacon, thus directing the blankets to the sanctification of the user and the glory of God.

I am almost finished with my first shawl, and have yarn for two more. (I succumbed to the warm colors of Lion Brand Homespun and to their prayer shawl pattern books.) Still, I think of another "shawl" which has been in use in the Church for centuries. It is called the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sewn into it and given to us by the Blessed Mother are her love, her prayers, and all of the good works of the Carmelite monks and nuns throughout time, and throughout the world. Makes me wonder....