I want to pray for you and affirm
As the ashes have just been smudged
On your forehead
And we feel a little fragile these days
With war, and pandemic and climate change
And racism
And transphobia and homophobia
And all the Ableism
And all the hate—
So much hate that it’s bitter on our tongues
And it polluted the air we breathe
And we can feel it—
trying to X us out of existence
Because hate hurts all of us;
Even as it tricks the hater into feeling powerful.
But anyway I’m praying that you..
Yes you, know that you
Are created in the image of God
Exactly as you are.
With all of your so called flaw
And imperfections
And differences,
Remember that our God is
Manifold, and that they
Love multiplicity and variety
And invented rainbows
And galaxies
And microbes we can’t even see—
So trust me, and be affirmed
Even in, especially in your fragility
That you are known, created and beloved
By God, exactly as your are
And take their blessings I’m your heart I pray.
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
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Author: katyandtheword
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
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