Psalm 41:1-3

God
We are calling down
Your protection

Because
I see the face
of terrified
College students
of Brown People with
Tattoos

Echoing
Those of
Separated
Families
at the border

I am still haunted
by a picture of
their jewelry
and crosses
piled like
Jewish
loot
during
the Holocaust

And the Fragile
Gaza
peace
has been broken

and so I pray
Protection
For the families

And for the Soldiers
in Yemen
And around the world

As OPSEC is said
but not Enacted

Though truly
My heart
Longs for Peace
I pray for a language
beyond bombs
and threats
and bullying

and even tariffs

Staunch Pacifist that I am

As the budget for food
and Veterans are cuts
but the Military remains
bloats
Military Industrial Complex
Indeed Lord, I cry

And God,
I cry out for all of those
with Cancer
longing for Treatment
whose funding was cut
The researchers
who have been sustained
I know that God
You work to sustain
All those with infirmities
I pray that you will work
To heal all infirmities

Open the ears and hearts
of those who need to
understand
Melt those with
hearts and brains of stone

Melt them
Reverse their Decisions
Transform things so Completely
That we do not even Recognize things

For God you know
When we pray for Health
We are praying for a healthy
World–
Not for just ourselves
But for me, my neighbor, my enemy
to all be transformed into
(almost unrecognizable) signs of mercy
Signs of the Kin(g)dom
And so I pray
For a Forgiveness of Debts
That I cannot comprehend

For Food for all people
In a Dailyness of Bread

For the coming of your Glory
Which of course will be in Mercy

And for
Your Kin(g)dom Come
Your Will Be done
Amen,
Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”

Psalm 41:1-3

1 Happy are those who consider the poor;* (marginal/oppressed)
   the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
2 The Lord protects(guards them/covenants with them) them and keeps them alive;(like a. shepherd guards a sheep, like a sacred duty, like a hedge of protection)
   they are called happy in the land. (It will be a gifting, a granting)
   You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; (a sustain, supporting, comforting, stability and continuity))
   in their illness you heal all their infirmities.* (Healed and transformed, reversed, turn over a new leaf) The grace and mercy of God will be through compassion.

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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.

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