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Prayer Shawl Ministry provides warmth, healing through handiwork
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Lucille Stewart of Canfield participates in the Ursuline Sisters’ Prayer Shawl Ministry. Since the group’s formation in 2008, more than 700 handmade prayer shawls stitched by 30-odd members have been distributed to the Ursuline Sisters’ HIV/AIDS Ministry and the Hope Cancer Center, among other organizations.
Shawl ministry knits participants to recipients
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
CANFIELD
Almost six years after founding the Ursuline Sisters’ Prayer Shawl Ministry, Eileen Novotny remains awed by members’ generosity.
Not only do members often spend their own money on quality yarn that will hold up after repeated washings, but they also spend hours of their time — usually about 30 to 40 on each shawl they knit or crochet — to bring comfort to those who are suffering, she said.
“Everybody can do something to make life better for somebody else,” said Novotny, program director for the Ursuline Center in Canfield. “It’s just a matter of choosing, and these ladies choose to do that.”
Since the group’s formation in 2008, more than 700 handmade prayer shawls stitched by 30-odd members have been distributed to the Ursuline Sisters’ HIV/AIDS Ministry and the Hope Cancer Center, among other organizations, Novotny said.
She added that though the shawls offer an extra layer of physical warmth for patients, they also provide healing, as members pray for and think about shawl recipients as they stitch.
“As we work on them at home, we’re connecting with somebody who is hurting,” Novotny said. “The prayer shawls are a perfect match with the Ursuline Sisters’ ministry and mission, which is helping the poor and the marginalized and the abused of this Valley.”
At the group’s monthly meetings, too, the women collectively bless the shawls before they’re sent off.
Anyone who requests a shawl will receive one, Novotny said, mentioning that shawls made by members of “our little group in Youngstown” have traveled as far as Lima, Peru. Each shawl is delivered to the recipient with a prayer card, along with tiny cross and heart charms, attached to it.
Some members also make baby blankets, most of which go to St. Elizabeth Health Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Novotny added.
As it would be virtually impossible to complete a shawl during one of the group’s two-hour meetings, members — many of whom have been coming for several years — spend much of the time catching up, exchanging patterns and recipes, or engaging in a grown-up version of show-and-tell, albeit with their handiwork.
All the while, though, their hands, clutching two needles or a hook, swoop through the air, transforming a strand of yarn into a wearable object.
Flo Bolchalk of Boardman has been attending the group’s meetings at the Ursuline Center for about three years, and said she enjoys knitting, which she’s done for more than 70 years, because it’s a way to make “something from nothing.”
She likes, too, that the finished knitted or crocheted product helps others.
“It’s like them getting a gift,” Bolchalk said. “It makes you feel good that you’re giving some happiness to people.”
Meetings are marked on her calendar, Bolchalk said, adding that she makes sure to come every month. It’s a fun group and one she’s learned a lot from — but also shared several of her own knitting tricks with, too.
Members come from all over, and also are of numerous faiths, said Ginger Taft of Austintown, who is in her second year with the group. The group is diverse and open, and all are welcome, even those who don’t yet know how to knit or crochet but would like to learn.
“It’s such a worthwhile endeavor,” Taft said. “These women can get anybody addicted.”
The group has just two rules, Novotny said: No one is allowed to whine or gossip, or be otherwise negative, during its meetings. The first time she explained these rules, the women simply laughed.
“The grumpy people don’t come back. It’s a happy, positive group,” Novotny said. “These are ladies who have a talent, and instead of just staring at the TV, they’re reaching out for somebody else. I see them as really special people.”
The Ursuline Center’s Prayer Shawl Ministry meets from 10 a.m. to noon on the third Tuesday of each month at the Ursuline Center’s Prato Hall, 4280 Shields Road.
For more information, contact Eileen Novotny at 330-533-3831.