{"id":1388,"date":"2014-10-13T01:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T01:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2014-10-02T19:10:03","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T19:10:03","slug":"food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Could you forgive someone who had killed someone you love? Could you find healing for your pain and a purpose for your life?<\/p>\n<p>In her new book, &#8220;Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness,&#8221; Cheryl Wunsch weaves together her personal story of a difficult journey through grief to a unique way to bring what she has learned and done to others. Part witness, part spiritual craft guide, and part devotional, Wunsch does not sugarcoat the tragedy that propelled her life onto a different and God-directed path. But she does not merely describe the facts and certainly does not expect the reader to think, only, &#8220;oh, the poor woman.&#8221; Rather, she shows in word and action how she found her way through the tragedy&#8217;s aftermath and, amazingly, found grace and purpose, a ministry to help others and the inspiration to tell her story so that it, too, can be of assistance to anyone experiencing tragedy.<\/p>\n<p>Wunsch has a solid &#8211; and professional &#8211; perspective on psychology (she is a licensed psychotherapist and is certified in contemplative spiritual direction), and is well-learned in theology and, in particular, lectio divino. The devotional and journaling parts of the book are helpful tools for the reader who seeks guidance as he or she navigates through a way to forgive, and the knitting (Wunsch is a founder of a Prayer Shawl Ministry at her local parish) that strings all together is a unique and refreshing way to approach working out the &#8220;knots,&#8221; and reaching out to others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness,&#8221; is available through online booksellers. Wunsch&#8217;s website is: www.knittingprayingforgiving.com<\/p>\n<p>Joy and peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could you forgive someone who had killed someone you love? Could you find healing for your pain and a purpose for your life? In her new book, &#8220;Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness,&#8221; Cheryl Wunsch weaves together her personal story of a difficult journey through grief to a unique way to bring&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1242],"tags":[1278,1281,1285,1279,1280,1277,1282,1283,223,1284],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-for-thought","tag-book-on-forgiveness","tag-book-review-on-forgiveness","tag-cheryl-wunsch","tag-forgiving-someone","tag-healing-and-forgiveness","tag-knitting","tag-lectio-divino","tag-prayer-shaw-ministry","tag-praying","tag-wunsch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Could you forgive someone who had killed someone you love? Could you find healing for your pain and a purpose for your life? In her new book, &#8220;Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness,&#8221; Cheryl Wunsch weaves together her personal story of a difficult journey through grief to a unique way to bring&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-13T01:54:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-02T19:10:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"Could you forgive someone who had killed someone you love? 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In her new book, &#8220;Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness,&#8221; Cheryl Wunsch weaves together her personal story of a difficult journey through grief to a unique way to bring&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2014-10-13T01:54:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-02T19:10:03+00:00","author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html","name":"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-13T01:54:39+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-02T19:10:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/food-for-thought-knitting-praying-forgiving-a-pattern-of-love-and-forgiveness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Food for Thought: Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1389,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}