Prayer Knitting

Every year, thousands of volunteers knit and crochet handmade scarves to go into packages for U.S. troops overseas. One of those people is 98-year-old Joan Mazzarelli. She has platinum hair, a pixie smile and on her lap, is a pair of knitting needles.

Since March, Mazzarelli has knitted or crocheted 527 scarves and hats for what she calls her boys and girls in the war. There was another war being fought overseas when she first began this task in 1940, during World War II.

"I knitted not only scarves, but socks and gloves, everything for the soldiers," Mazzarelli says.

She had a beauty shop back then and would knit in-between customers. These days she knits about 14 hours a day.

Mazzarelli says the thank you letters she receives today are not that different than the ones she received 70 years ago.

I just want to thank you for including your special gift of a handmade hat. I'm reminded of my grandma's crocheted hats she made for my sister and I when we were kids.

But, as much as she loves knitting for the men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, Mazzarelli says she wishes they were home.

Until then, she'll continue knitting. For her, knitting is an act of service, a prayerful meditation.

The above article is taken from a radio story on National Public Radio. http://www.wfae.org/wfae/nprnews.cfm?storyId=132152168

Our church has a knitting group of women who, much like Mrs. Mazzarelli, prayerfully send off their handiwork to bless the shoulders, laps, heads and hearts of those who receive them. Every inch of yarn has passed through someone’s fingers and there is the hope, the belief, that the care of the crafter somehow gets transferred to the recipient of the craft. Lap blankets for the sick, prayer shawls for the elderly, wool caps for those who’ve lost their hair in cancer treatments – all these are more than signs of love, they are sacraments of the holy – visible means of an invisible grace.

I am often overwhelmed by the great needs of the world, but our knitting group reminds me that while none of us can do everything about the world’s plight, anyone can do something to bring some grace into our “graceless age.”