[NEWS] Stole spun with suffering, hope
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:Â
The stole is a priestly garment in Catholic practice. It is worn to signal that God's grace is being poured forth. It welcomes the infant to the baptismal font and sends the elderly on their final journey home. It is donned hastily on the battlefield to apply the balm of forgiveness and mercy, and carefully in preparation for preaching the word and distributing the Eucharist.
For months now, Lori Lasher, a partner in one of Philadelphia's premier law firms, has been working on a special stole. Hand spun from the yarn of 14 different animals, the rough-looking strip of cloth will be presented to Pope Francis when he arrives in Philadelphia this week for the World Meeting of Families. Lasher said, "I'm especially proud that one of the animals used was the Falkland sheep," native to the pope's South American homeland.
"It was at lunch with Sister Mary Scullion that we came up with the idea of the stole," Lasher told me. She has been delivering pro bono legal services to the homeless for 20 years, many of those years with Project HOME, where Scullion is the executive director.
