Book excerpt: Knit with love, Prayer Shawls are handmade pieces of knitting that show someone you care. A Prayer Shawl wraps a person in prayer and love, just like a warm, fuzzy blanket.Each story in The Prayer Shawl Chronicles is a fictional tale of someone who finds herself in need of healing - and that quest for healing ultimately helps someone else heal as well. A woman walking her dog steps into a church, talking shelter from the rain, and unexpectedly receives an invitation to join in a Blessing of the Prayer Shawls church service. A prayer shawl becomes a cat bed. Another comforts a homeless man living under a bridge. A former addict knits to keep herself sober and finds herself in a new romance. A friendship between a young ballerina and a retired lawyer is sparked, spanning generations and life experiences. One prayer shawl begins its journey in Tennessee, goes to Paris and back, and somehow ends up in Africa. Unexpected gifts appear, seemingly out of nowhere. Unlikely connections are made, sometimes across cultures and even continents, sometimes between people who might never imagine themselves connected in any way. By the end of the book, all the stories connect and loop around each other, just like the yarn of a knitted prayer shawl. Set in an Episcopal parish in Tennessee, this book shows the church at its best, with people caring for each other and making amazing connections. Prayer shawls - donated anonymously - end up in different continents, spark new romances, heal the wounded, and shelter the homeless. As you follow the stories of these prayer shawls, you will laugh, cry and meet characters who grow and learn about themselves and those they never expected to meet.Cynthia Coe writes and knits on her farm in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is a wife and mother of three children, two cats, and a dog. A graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, Cynthia served as a Justice & Advocacy Fellow of The Episcopal Church and wrote Christian formation curricula for children and youth as part of this fellowship. She is the author of two novels and four books on Christian formation.