Processing with God: Narrative Lectionary, Liturgy, Prayers
Tender Christmas
God, I’m praying a tender prayer for Christmas
For all those for whom they have a tender and surrendered faith because of all they have gone through.
Because you cannot surrender until you’ve been through a battle and so for all those who have felt like Advent Christmas or just Living has been a battle this year I want to pray the prayer of thanksgiving
that you are still here you are beloved and God is with you–
And I hope you have found yourself in the Christmas story whether it is in Mary, not so meek, Joseph conflicted but quietly obedient Magi, shepherd, even if it is the donkey, the innkeeper or the star
I hope and pray that you find a corner to belong in Because this is your story too
But if you do not, know, that’s ok Maybe the space for you is in the silence or the darkness of the night or the wavering light of the candle
God I hope you know that God is here God is with you God loves you no matter what
And that is what makes Christmas Especially when you feel tender and like you have to give up May God hold you in the Palm of God’s hand Whenever and wherever that happens
Amen.
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta and if you quote the tweet be sure to credit Traci Rhoades and Rev. Jes Last
Please Support my Writing, I am Funding some of my Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian through donations https://gofund.me/554d36e3 Thank you to all those who have donated, I have successfully completed 2 years thanks to your support.
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. 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.
View all posts by katyandtheword
One thought on “Tender Christmas”