Immigrant God
Be with us
Be with those separated from families
Teach us how to make room at the inn
Remind us
That you translated
Yourself into Humanity
Because you understood
That we humans
We hate translating
Teach us to keep at this translation work
of human to understand divine
of cultural understanding
of the beauty of change (we humans aren’t so good at change)
Translate us
into a Christmas people
we pray
Amen
God of Chosen Names
Jesus
Yesu
El Shaddai
God of Many Breasts;
Y/Know the God of Many Mountains-Able to be Worshiped anywhere
Otherwise translated as Almighty
Abundant God
Merciful God
Purveyor of Peace
Everlasting Guardian
King of Kings
Ruler of All
Kin-dom Creator
God of Chosen Fam
Sibling Maker
Creator of Heirs
The One who makes us all Heirs
of Love
Creator of Peace
the one who faces
Trauma
Hard Family Dynamics
Gossip
Rocky Friendships
And walks with people
With dirt between your toes
and washes our feet
dries our tears
Sits with us
In silence
Waits
And calls us
By our Chosen name
God of Compassion
Empathy
God of the in-between
God of Grays
Twilights
Sunrises
Sunsets
Dragonflies
Amphibians
Marsupials
Fungi
Duck-Billed Platypi
God of the Blackholes
Stardust
God the quarks and leptons
You are inst and amongst the rainbows
Encouraging personification of self
Co-creation, Naming
You celebrate our being
the Imago Dei
and the DEI
Diversity
Equity
and Inclusion
You are proud of all of your children
You oo and ahh and shout with joy
Proclaiming the fullness of
your Trans*
Queer
Lesbian
Gay
Ace
Nonbinary
Intersex
and Pansexual Children
You send angels
before them
(canonically nonbinary
themselves)
Proclaiming
That they are
Fierce
And Wonderfully Made
Saying
Make way
for them
For they
are Children of God
May the world
Have ears to Hear
And Hearts to Understand
The beauty of your Creation
Amen
Amen!
Feel free to use/share adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta aka “KatyandtheWord”
Jesus Christ
I think about how
Bread is shared
the Crusty Full flat breads
That are more easily shared with
a quick tearing among friends for
Tapas
I think of how
Sharing is entrenched
In Christ’s ministry
of how Jesus spent
his last moments
Sharing food
and Prayer
The gentle
voices of how
to survive
this moment
come across
this very moment
and people say
Volunteer
Find a friend
a community
in Need
And I think
Of how
When You Return
Ever Knee
Shall Bow
Because
You will return
As you Left
Serving
On Your
Knees
Gardening
Washing Feet
Healing
Greeting Children
Praying
So we will all Kneel
To Serve
Beside you
The Mandate
Command–is not necessary
In stark contrast to law and order
The reign of Christ will come
through mercy
and Love
Love and mercy you
Say
and you will feed us
And we will
throw our doors
Open wide
Maybe it’s Agape Thursday
Or Hesed Thursday
But sure
Maundy Thursday
For Now
Holy Spirit
Come!
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
God
I am
so angry
I could
Curse out
all the Fig
Trees
That are poisoning
The land
I am so
angry
I could
Flip
the tables
of all those
Who are
Tricking the
Public
with Slight of
Hand
Money
Changing
Pretend
“Money
Saving”
Tricks
God I am so
Angry
That there is
Not actually
A Cursing God
Tuesday
There is not
and actually
Justice Making
Monday
There is not
An
Actually
Action-Making
Stay up all Night
Until things Change
Sunday
We play through
The Emotions
of Holy Week
And all I end up
with is another
Statement
From my Denomination
Don’t get me wrong
I am a Writer
In Love with Words
Grounded in
The Good News
I love Verbal Processing
As much
as the Next Person
And I think
That Art
feeds the Soul
of Movements
But we have to figure
Out how To
Stop our
Senators from
Posting
Mealy Mouth
Social Media
Statements
And Move from
The Theater
To actually
Tearing Down
The things that
Don’t work
Before the
Fig Trees
Are Replanted
Before the Temple
was rebuilt
Before the Table
Was put back together
Things had to be
cursed out
Deconstructed
Torn Apart
Destroyed
There is no
resurrection
Without Death
How do we
Kill Racism
Nazism
Homophobia
Isolationism
Christian Fascism
So that we can finally
Figure out
Liberation
Equity
Justice
and Extravagant Grace
Lord,
Teach us
to be a Resurrection
People
we Pray
Amen
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “Katyandtheword”
I admit
I was relieved
When someone said
Let’s go
to a sanctuary
Come
Let us God
And Seek God
For I need to rest
my weary
soles
soul
something
somewhere
And my house
is way too messy
And before I knew it
My soles
soul
were standing at your gates
And we were knocking on heavens door
And I realized
that God’s Kin-dom
is unlike any other
Binding together people
who I had never seen
or known
And my heart leapt
To my throat
and I wanted
to scream
cry
and lay down
and rest
and never get up again
For here is a place
where everyone
would come up
and be welcomed
There are no locks
in heaven
and as I put my hand
On your door
my soles
felt the ground
itself
welcome me
And gratitude
Spilled from my lips
Unbeckoned
And Judgement Came
And it sounded like this
“Peace will radiate from you,
It will be part and parcel
of your homes, your walls,
your cities
It is promised
Even in our messy
houses
cities
churches
governances
countries
and streets
And that peace
will hum from our throats
And we will sing
greet
and radiate to one another
“Peace be within you”
And so
We will go
And seek
Good and Sanctuary
For the sake
of this
needed
Sanctuary
That my soul
and the itchy
Soles of my feet
ache for
I will
keep seeking it
And catch moments
of respite, whenever I can
Because God knows
We need it.
Tears roll down the face of Starlette Thomas, of Bowie, Md., as she holds a chunk of pavement from the Black Lives Matter mural, Monday, March 10, 2025, as the mural begins to be demolished in Washington. “I needed to be here to bear witness,” says Thomas, who was present at the 2020 George Floyd protests. “For me the Black Lives Matter sign etched in stone was a declaration of somebodyness and to watch it be undone in this way was very hurtful. To walk away with a piece of that, it means it’s not gone. It’s more than brick and mortar.” (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Image
God there are so many
worries I have in
the world
But then I remember
that Ozma**
was restored
to rule
and got
her happy ending
and became a girl***
without any fuss at all
And that stories of
Defying Gravity
for
Different
Divergent
Witches
In not Pink Skins
are inspiring
Songs everywhere
and that Glinda too
realized
she needed a castle
with women
I remember that
Banksy is creating
and recreating
for Peace
I read all the
Science Fiction
and Fantasy
about acceptance
I remember
that people are
upset about
Woke
things
Because they
sell so well
And I take a deep breath
And sing
the Magnificat
Again
With Mary
As
We Advent
(Wait, Long, etc.)
again
for Jesus
*Footnote: Link above Mary Poppins Spoonful of sugar was inspired by the oral Polio vaccine which was given with a square of sugar to help the medicine go down. I am very worried about the discrediting of vaccines in this day of age. I am also worried because I have a child with autism, and although vaccines do not cause autism, time and time again people have insisted they basically would rather risk death then have a child with autism. It is a sobering thought.
**Footnote: Read Ozma of Oz, it is one of the first happy endings for LGBTQIA. Also L. Frank Baum wrote many, many women based upon his feminist mother-in-law, some of them funny, some of them strong, all of them amazing. There is a lot of variation in Oz, because it is fantasy. It is amazing, per usual. Wicked also has LGBTQIA acceptance obliquely within it, however L. Frank Baum’s stories are wide open for interpretation as most fantastic stories are.
***Footnote: “became a girl” is not quite right but it’s fantasy and this is poetry I don’t want to ruin for you…so excuse my clumsy wording for the gist of the mystery of the book that you will now have to read.
God,
We just don’t know
Picture of the United States drawing scribbled over/colored by a child “What we know so far” Shared by Dan Chan @danchaon.bsky.social on bluesky social app
So many have done
what they can
to sew peace
To establish
humanity
human rights
And
Lord have mercy
because
we are
already
exhausted
“Next Week Has Been Exhausting” by Diane Duane
Anticipatory
Exhaustion
may be the hardest
I remember
when my child
was in the run away
and legitimate
insomnia
(beyond normal)
phase
And I would
wake up
looking forward
to a nap
I would have for
the day
after
today
God
you know
My soul is weary
Is your
soul weary
God?
Because
even after the
election
You know
We know
That no matter
the outcome
There is
hard work
to do
This is about more
than leadership
(I remember
in the Old Testament
When
Hebrew people
wanted a King
and you warned them
That is not enough)
And yet
Breathe in: I am here
Breathe out: God is here
This is true today
This is true tomorrow
This is how I will wait
Because all good work counts
Maybe especially
when
it seems
like it doesn’t
Pneuma
Holy Spirit
Breathe for me
When I can’t
Breathe in: I am here
Breathe out: God is here
Amen
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
This is a prayer for those
who need
Legislate
posting the ten commandments
and the denominations that need
to
expel women
define “marriage”
in ways the devalue personhood
This is a prayer because
God melt the hearts
of those
who only have
one hardened
understanding of
scripture
God
humanity
God I pray that you melt
their hearts
God I pray that you
sing poetry to them
in their dreams
And show them
the mysteries of the heavens
And
tell them
that it is
ok
not to have a quick
answer
and solution
I pray for children that ask awkward
questions
I pray for elders
with mystical wisdom
I pray for animals
with unspoken relatedness
This is a prayer
for all parts of faith
that are not words
etched in stone
But people
beautifully alive
in community
eating, dancing
laughing in the mystery of faith
this is my prayer
for all those who are stuck
in the “right” Christianity today
feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Here’s a prayer for the Nonbinary
those who are represented
in the Twilight
the Dawn
And all of the beautful shades of gray in the world
which can contain a rainbow of colors within it.
Here’s a prayer for the Nonbinary
Those who are both/and
The ones who feel at home in the Trans* community
and those who are created in the image of God
Male and Female
Here’s a prayer for the children
Who should be safe in their identity
Beloved in their
Zir
Xyr
Eir
Full selves
Able to Name and Claim Who they are
And yes
Use the bathroom
Without peering eyes
questions
or even a second of discomfort
Is that not what we want for all of our children?
Here is a prayer for the Nonbinary
the ones who understand the importance
of a well-placed pronoun
those who ones who live bravely in the thin places
the in-between
for we know that those places are blessed
and Holy
You are Holy
Here’s a prayer for the Nonbinary
For you are Beautifully and Fiercely made
Don’t let anyone tell you differently
For you are a Child of God
Who created you, loves you exactly as you are
and calls you by your chosen name
Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
This prayer is in response to the tragic and hate perpetuated death of Nex Benedict in Oklahoma. Details which are graphic can be found here: https://www.them.us/story/nex-benedict-nonbinary-teen-oklahoma-died-attacked-at-school
As the parent of a similarly aged NonBinary Teen, this one really gets me
Addendum: It seems that Nex was not able to come out fully–as articulated in this article and he/they might have been trans https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/vigil-friends-remember-nex-benedict-fiery-kid-rcna140440
Dear Jesus
You are the God of the Cross
Journeying with Us
Suffering Amongst Us
You do not Proscribe Suffering
But Walk,
Thirsty in the desert with us
Sweet Jesus
You do not make demands
But call us, and listen, when we spill our whole selves to you by the well
Compassionate Friend
You wait for us on the Cross
And tell us, it is not too late to apologize, even then, and You will be there on the other side
How beautiful is the whole testimony of the Cross:
We are not alone, We do not have to suffer, We can be our full self
And we do not have to double down
Because its never, ever to late to apologize
Jesus is waiting for us
Our theology is not ultimately about debates
But about love, and to see the humanity of each other
And Jesus
On the Cross
How beautiful is the Body of Christ,
Thank you for being the God of the Cross
Amen.
Image of Brown hammer, nails and cross of thorns on wood in a the lefthand foreground, and and a cross in the righthand background. Created on Canva
katyandtheword 