Category: Christmas

An Advent Prayer for the World Weary

Here’s a Prayer

for anyone who is going into Advent Tired

Weary of almost two years of

pandemicking

Two years of pastoring or preaching or caring or writing prayers for people

who are ill, or caretaking,

or trying to find a bed in the hospital, or a spot for surgery.

Here’s a prayer for a timeframe where the hard things have been harder

and the loneliness has felt excruciating,

and the reassessing has hit like a hammer

and the promised whisper of the baby Jesus

is hard to hear over the to do lists,

and the worrying

and apocalyptic understanding of health/political/biogotted infrastructures and economies

of this time and space.

And Lord,

It makes us wonder if this is some of what Mary felt in tumultuous and occupied Jerusalem

when she faced the angel,

overwhelmed by it all

We too feel her determination

As she opened her mouth and

found that the words that tumbled out were

It doesn’t have to be this way!

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2021-12-01-at-9.48.10-am.png
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It doesn’t have to be this way!

Magnify the Lord!

Bring down the Mighty

Fill the Hungry with Good Things.

So as we enter this Advent, tired and hungry and lonely God.

Remind us that,Advent is a good time for these feelings, Lord.

Advent is about preparation,

and understanding that we are ready for Jesus!

Lord,

I think we need Christ right now,

And that’s ok,

Remind us that it’s ok,

It’s ok to really, truly need Jesus!

and traditional to be world weary at Advent.

And help us to sit with that a bit I pray.

Amen.

Here’s a Prayer

for anyone who is going into Advent Tired

Weary of almost two years of

pandemicking

Two years of pastoring or preaching or caring or writing prayers for people

who are ill, or caretaking,

or trying to find a bed in the hospital, or a spot for surgery.

Here’s a prayer for a timeframe where the hard things have been harder

and the loneliness has felt excruciating,

and the reassessing has hit like a hammer

and the promised whisper of the baby Jesus

is hard to hear over the to do lists,

and the worrying

and apocalyptic understanding of health/political/biogotted infrastructures and economies

of this time and space.

And Lord,

It makes us wonder if this is some of what Mary felt in tumultuous and occupied Jerusalem

when she faced the angel,

overwhelmed by it all

We too feel her determination

As she opened her mouth and

found that the words that tumbled out were

It doesn’t have to be this way!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2021-12-01-at-9.49.13-am.png
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2021-12-01-at-9.48.10-am.png
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2021-12-01-at-9.47.27-am.png

It doesn’t have to be this way!

Magnify the Lord!

Bring down the Mighty

Fill the Hungry with Good Things.

So as we enter this Advent, tired and hungry and lonely God.

Remind us that,Advent is a good time for these feelings, Lord.

Advent is about preparation,

and understanding that we are ready for Jesus!

Lord,

I think we need Christ right now,

And that’s ok,

Remind us that it’s ok,

It’s ok to really, truly need Jesus!

and traditional to be world weary at Advent.

And help us to sit with that a bit I pray.

Amen.

Complete List of Pandemic Prayers and Resources

With Thanks to April Fiet, Andre Henry, David Hogg and Kevin Miguel Garcia for the Inspirational Tweets

Originally Published at RevGalBlogPals https://revgalblogpals.org/2021/12/03/an-advent-prayer-for-the-world-weary/

If you enjoy my prayers please consider giving to my Doctorate in Creative Writing. I write extensive prayers and resources for free and usually have over 100 views a day. If everyone gave $10 I’d be done in two weeks! https://gofund.me/70a114f9

Please feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Ready for a fun Supposition?

Here’s something to consider–it’s for fun you do not need to agree with me, but I like it and will continue to believe it.

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear is an Advent Song.

1. It’s about angels

2. It’s about their endless song

3. This entire verse is advent And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toll along the climbing way With painful steps and slowLook now! for glad and golden hour Come swiftly on the wing;O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.(Waiting, pentitance, getting through ALL advent themes)

4. Verse 4 is all about prophecy….as is the whole thing

Anyway we sing Christmas song early anyway but we almost always sing it the 2nd week, for peace as an advent prophecy song, because I maintain its been misfiled

All I want…(Magnificat)

All I want for Christmas God,

is everything

Peace on Earth, and no more guns,

and the end of the filibuster,

and every child fed.

All girls want is equity–

and all pregnant people want is easy and safe access to abortion

and childbirth, family leave and chidcare.

Jesus Christ, do you hear me?

All we want is equity, and Black Lives to Matter

and Native Land Returned

and Queer Families to be acknowledged and safe

and for all Bodies to be Affirmed.

All we want is for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

to include healthcare and shelter for every single person

and the humanity of one single person to never ever be debased.

All I want is for pronouns to be universal, and for people to not look at me weird if I refer to God as she or ze or they.

All I want is for everyone to understand that no human being is illegal,

and that disability porn is disgusting, and that any nation where people have to beg to get basic things is severely lacking.

Holy Spirit– you have heard me say this before, so you know.

All I want is a world where addiction is understood to be a disease,

mental illness care is not a shambles

and neither is blamed whenever some domestic terrorist incident happens.

All I want is a world where everyone who wants access to therapy can get it–

without barriers for free.

All I want is a place where politics are not politics but policies of care and where politicians are there to serve the people.

All I want is a world where mindless corporations are not favored and technology is first and foremost used to help one another.

God–why did you make my imagination so unlimited, when it seems that our capabilities are so limited?

How is it I can so easily imagine the Kingdom to come? I know its not really my job to bring it about, because I can’t, that’s your job.

Nor can I demand it, for it will come in its own time.

But wow Lord, whenever I imagine what can be, my mind just goes wild with the possibilities! Help me to see some of the fruit of the Spirit I pray!

Because, as you know, I want it all!

Amen.

Feel fee to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Santa Hat Prayer

God,

You know that every year,

around Thanksgiving,

My advent prayer looks like a Santa Hat–

(and yes I cheat and start earlier)

You know which one I mean.

The really real one,

deep red one that got last minute at a drugstore,

that I can no longer find anywhere

that one I spent $6 Freshman year of college…

Way too close to 9/11,

This hat was a promise that

somehow

despite the exams, the terrorism, the depression and the needless war

Christmas would come that year

And that Christianity didn’t have to look like

whatever it looked like on the news that year…

(and honestly how its looked since then too)

I wear that prayer on my head

and Holy Spirit only you know how it is I haven’t lost that hat in the following twenty years

I have tried to buy another hats, similar hats, but its never worked, and always return to this one–worn throughout Thanksgiving til Christmas.

Somedays, I forget I am wearing the Santa hat, til someone flashes a smile, or compliments me,

or calls me Mrs Claus, And then I wink and tell them I’m actually Santa

And when Children ask why I wear the hat, I say its because I get to teach about Christmas because I’m a Pastor

and it reminds me…

why I do all of this.

Last year, it was a relief to wear it some as things slowly opened,

this year, I suspect that it will be more defiant,

as Covid rages on, and humans are not my favorite beings

at the moment.

But I’ll be here,

wearing a prayer,

like hope, peace, joy and love

upon my head–

Thank God for twenty years of Santa hats–

and all the pieces of prayers that we wear on our hearts

today and everyday.

Give us all the pieces of prayers you can this season

I pray

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta