CW: war and violence
Good God who is glorious, generous
full of bounty, food and other good things
I feel too exhausted to pray
about pieces of metal
that explode into
messes of blood
tragedy
and annihlation
As the weeping of babies
across oceans
haunt my dreams at night
and the artwork of Banksy
decorates the walls,
the walls of hate
My words seem like a meager choice
the cry of Peace
while those with nothing are crying
in war
Who will share this burden?
The prophets cry
And the artists will paint
with their tears
Call your Congressperson
I pray
Do not tell the story of the downtrodden:
the Palestinian Christian,
the hungry senior citizen
the beaten Black Lives Matter Activist
the forgotten Trans Teen
the shot kindergartener
Do not tell the story after the tragedy has happened
God
I am so tired of praying
about pieces of metal
empty of bullets
emptying lives
emptying souls
Teach me another prayer
Teach me the prayer of
Peace
Because
Because
I am all too familiar with the vocabulary of hate
it contains words like
animals
revenge
and dehumanization
Reteach me the
languages of love
teach me the
me the lexicon of
humanization
Melt our hearts
our weapons
our souls
into another shape
I pray.
Amen.
Feel Free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “Katyandtheword”
Author: katyandtheword
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
katyandtheword 