Prayer cloth explained
A prayer cloth is a sacramental used by Christians, in continuation with the practice of the early Church, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles:[1] Prayer cloths are especially popular within the Pentecostal tradition of Christianity, although communicants of other Christian denominations use them as well.[1] Among Lebanese Christians, prayer cloths are blessed and then placed on an afflicted area, while believers pray to God through the intercession of Saint Sharbel.[1] Among Methodists and Pentecostals, if a Christian is suffering from an illness and is not present during a church service, a prayer cloth is consecrated through prayer and then taken to the sick individual.[2] [3]
See also
Notes and References
- Book: Caine. Kenneth Winston. Kaufman. Brian Paul. Prayer, Faith, and Healing. 19 May 2000. Rodale. English. 9781579542658. 499.
- Book: Lang, Bernhard. Sacred Games: A History of Christian Worship. 1997. Yale University Press. English . 9780300172263. 403. If the person who needs to be healed is not present, prayer may be said over a piece of cloth; consecrated through communal prayer (and perhaps the additional touch of a particularly gifted healer), the cloth is believed to carry a healing power. The Foundations of Pentecostal Theology quotes the scriptural basis of the "prayer cloth": "And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or belts, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them" (Acts 19:11-12)..
- Book: Joyner, Belton. United Methodist Questions, United Methodist Answers: Exploring Christian Faith. 29 January 2015. Westminster John Knox Press. English . 9780664260422. 89.
