Processing with God: Narrative Lectionary, Liturgy, Prayers
Joy
Joy is not a platitude though sometimes we use it as a mask
Joy is not smile Jesus loves you it is not happiness
Have you seen a joyful child? the gift of their giggles the wonder of life borne from love (yes I am writing all bornes with poetic “e”s this season)
Joy is rebellious it is deep-rooted sense of differentiated Belonging to Community Creation and Self All at Once
it is the ability to still Create even in the Midst of Grief
Joy is Art
Joy to the World Is practicing Advent claiming the Holy Imaginings for better How Much More For Proclaiming Lament And Claiming Tomorrow
Joy is the In-Breaking Christmas In the Midst of Advent
Even the Ancient Priests had Proclaim in Pink Excuse me I mean Rose Because they could not hold back the Gaudy Carols of Christmas During the Long Season Of Advent (and not just because it used to be Six Weeks instead of Four)
God, you know, That we know, We are tired of this Advent Season Yet Somehow You Teach us Joy In Children In Art In Gardens In Our Deep Longings for More
Remind us that Joy is a Revolution* Amen Amen
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “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.
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