The material can be adapted and used to help those who are learning to read. Books for beginning readers are usually in large print. Grown-ups can help children learn to follow along and take part in worship.

“Thank you and God bless you, for your ministry of creating and making available a CD of Large-Print copies of the prayer book,” said the Rev. George Berlin, Rector at St. Philip & St. James Church, Denver, Colo.

“We now use it every Sunday, printing and setting out about a dozen copies a week,” said Father Berlin. “Some of our parishioners have macular degeneration, diminished vision due to cataracts, and diabetes."

PRAYERS & PSALMS FOR TODAY can help those who are hurting in body, mind and/or spirit. It includes selections from Prayers and Thanksgivings, Prayers for the Sick, Prayers for Use by a Sick Person, and the Book of Psalms from The Book of Common Prayer (1979).

While the prayers are from an Episcopal book, they may be helpful to people of other faiths as well.

The PRAYERS CD is in Microsoft Word™ and is mostly in 20-point Arial type. It is laid out for use on 8.5 x 11-inch pages.

If you believe that you have no need for these CDs, please pass this information along. Be a friend or make a friend. Vision problems know no age or social status.

Blind individuals with electronic note takers and special software and visually-impaired people with access to computers can use the CDs. The material can be loaded into a note taker and re-edited into a form of Braille. The CDs should also be useable in optical-character readers that can read material formatted in Microsoft Word™.

For four years the Large-Print Ministry has been distributing its CDs to dioceses; bishops; clergy; churches; seminaries; colleges; bookstores; libraries; prisons; eye-care professionals; military/VA chaplains; parish nurses; hospitals; mental-health chaplains; substance-abuse-treatment programs; hospices; AIDS programs; deafblind and deaf-visually-impaired ministries; developmentally-disabled ministries; diabetes programs; senior ministries; blind/visually-impaired organizations; as well as individuals.          

The hospitals/medical facilities include Palo Alto VA Health Care System, Palo Alto, Calif.; Hospital for Special Care, New Britain, Conn.; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Ill.; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass.; Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo.; New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, N.Y.; University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio; Mayview State Hospital, Bridgeville, Pa.; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – Sunny Shade, Pittsburgh, Pa.; and, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas.

McFarland Institute, New Orleans, La., ordered CDs for use by chaplains at hospitals, nursing homes, and those involved in the criminal justice system, including the New Orleans Police Department.

The Large-Print Ministry is a labor of love in thankfulness to God for His many blessings and in memory of my father who, in his later years, was visually-impaired.

To order one CD, please send a self-addressed, stamped 6x9-inch envelope with four first-class stamps attached (five on a padded envelope) to Ann Dahlen, 1900 6th Ave., Apt. 513, Rock Island, IL 61201. Please add more postage when ordering more than one CD. Please indicate which CD(s) you want. Two CDs can be sent in one unpadded 6x9-inch envelope. 

With your help, the Large-Print Ministry can continue to blossom. A DONATION OF ANY AMOUNT TO HELP COVER COSTS IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED as the Large-Print Ministry is a Lay Ministry that is not a part of any diocese, church or organization. Please make checks out to Ann Dahlen.