Oh Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console.
“I
think art is a consolation regardless of its content. It has the power to move
and make you feel like you're not.” - Jeff Tweedy
For many years, I have had an online business, Santa Fe Crafts and Gifts ~ Gifts for the Soul. It is not really a business that I market; rather, it is the repository of my ministry to bring consolation and warmth. When someone needs a rosary they can find it there, or if they need a special rosary made or repaired, I will find the beads that bring to the recipient the most meaning, and I complete the project in silent prayer.
Working with my hands on a work of art – a rosary made of brilliant crystals or a prayer shawl of soft yarn – brings peace and consolation for me as well, a knowing that the prayers I recite as I create the piece will bring to me the same peace and consolation that will rise to the recipient. Often, I will see a ball of yarn and I will “receive” a message to begin a prayer shawl, not knowing for whom it is intended until I am reaching the end. Then the message becomes clear – it is a friend who is diagnosed with cancer and needs the warmth of a shawl during chemotherapy; it is a new baby, who struggled to be born, and who will now be wrapped in its warmth; it is the friend of a friend who has lost her husband and will find comfort in counting the prayer beads woven into the fringe. The same inspiration happens when I see a string of crystals or pearls, or a special crucifix – it becomes a rosary with a special energy.
When I work within my ministry, time stands still. I’m moving my hands, but I’m not moving. I am creating, but I am not creating. Rather, the energy flows through my fingers and in this act of ministry, I am becoming the Instrument of His Peace.
For many years, I have had an online business, Santa Fe Crafts and Gifts ~ Gifts for the Soul. It is not really a business that I market; rather, it is the repository of my ministry to bring consolation and warmth. When someone needs a rosary they can find it there, or if they need a special rosary made or repaired, I will find the beads that bring to the recipient the most meaning, and I complete the project in silent prayer.
Working with my hands on a work of art – a rosary made of brilliant crystals or a prayer shawl of soft yarn – brings peace and consolation for me as well, a knowing that the prayers I recite as I create the piece will bring to me the same peace and consolation that will rise to the recipient. Often, I will see a ball of yarn and I will “receive” a message to begin a prayer shawl, not knowing for whom it is intended until I am reaching the end. Then the message becomes clear – it is a friend who is diagnosed with cancer and needs the warmth of a shawl during chemotherapy; it is a new baby, who struggled to be born, and who will now be wrapped in its warmth; it is the friend of a friend who has lost her husband and will find comfort in counting the prayer beads woven into the fringe. The same inspiration happens when I see a string of crystals or pearls, or a special crucifix – it becomes a rosary with a special energy.
When I work within my ministry, time stands still. I’m moving my hands, but I’m not moving. I am creating, but I am not creating. Rather, the energy flows through my fingers and in this act of ministry, I am becoming the Instrument of His Peace.
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