Photo by Brian LaPeter

Members of the Prayer Shawl Ministry at First United Methodist Church of Homosassa work Monday on their shawls. Counterclockwise, from left, are: Lyn Wolf, Fran Anderson, Cathy Conway, Althea Stuckey, Renate Little, Bobbie Knopp, Judith Huffer and Ann Morrison.

By Nancy Kennedy

For many, prayer is a nebulous word.

But a shawl, especially one knitted by someone praying for the person who receives it — that’s tangible.

“It’s a way of expressing that the whole church is with (the person),” said Judith Huffer, one of the group of knitters and crocheters who make up the prayer shawl ministry of First United Methodist Church in Homosassa. "They can wrap them-selves up in the prayers of the people.”

The ministry is one of many ways people of faith utilize and share the power and privilege of prayer. Thursday is National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme is: "Prayer! America’s Strength and Shield.”

Traditionally, the day is a call to public and private prayer, asking God to bless America. Locally, two noon prayer gatherings are planned, one on either side of the county. On the east side of Citrus County, people will gather outside the Inverness City Hall on Main Street. On the west side, people are invited to meet at the gazebo behind Crystal River City Hall on U.S. 19.

Each gathering will begin with someone blowing a shofar, or ram’s horn. Local pastors and lay people will lead those gathered in corporate prayer. But that’s just one hour of one day.

Prayer for many is an ongoing thing and takes many forms, such as the prayer shawl ministry. "The concept is to bring comfort to people,” said Ann Morrison, the founder of the group.

Since they started meeting and knitting in November, so far they’ve given out 26 shawls and have about 36 on hand. They give them to people in the hospital, to new moms, to those grieving the death of a loved one or someone who simply needs to know that someone is praying.

"About once every two months we have a blessing of the prayer shawls that we’ve made where we’ll pray for God’s blessings,” Huffer said. "We ask God’s blessings to our minds, to our hands, to our souls, to our yarns, to our needles, to the one who will receive the fruit of our prayer and that he or she will welcome the spirit in which it was knitted.”

Huffer said they don’t know in advance who will get a shawl -- or their prayers -- but that God knows. "One Monday afternoon the parish nurse and the pastor came in and the pastor had just received a phone call from a church member who had just found her grandson dead on her sofa,” she said. "So they asked for a shawl to take with them when they went to visit.”

Another shawl went to a woman who had turned 94 and loved fuzzy things. Huffer said the woman called Huffer, crying. The accompanying card noted that there’s a "hug in every stitch,” and the woman said, "When I put it on, I feel (hugged.)”

In a prayer booklet Huffer wrote for the shawl ministry, she called the shawls "compassion in action.” "Love breeds love; compassion breeds compassion,” she wrote. "So it stands to reason that people who experience a fresh touch of love are going to turn around and extend grace and kindness to other people. "Our shawls are conduits of God’s love,” she wrote. "In return we are blessed with touches of grace and compassion.”

Sharon Smith, parish nurse and head of the church’s visitation committee, said she sees firsthand the reaction of people who receive the prayer shawls, and by extension, the prayers of the church to those in need of them. "They feel warmed to know that somebody cares,” Smith said. "That’s the message, that as they’re made, people are praying -- and there’s power in prayer.”