Do you want to learn how to write prayers and liturgy? Psalms and Calls to Worship? Confessions and Personal Prayers? This Zoom Workshop is designed for all levels and experiences for people to engage in prayer writing–using the scripture as your guide. This will be an instructional, small group (limit 10) and experiential workshop.
Led by Katy Stenta, Pastor, Writer and Educator
For more information to sign up, email Katyandtheword at gmail.com. Titled “Liturgy”
Katy Stenta is a regular contributor to Sermonsuite, (formerly) RevGalBlogPals, and is published in Enfleshed, Presbyterian’s Today and Outlook. She received her undergraduate in English and History and Minor on Philosophy at Oberlin, her M. Div. and MA in Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is all but dissertation for her D. Min. in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She also writes personal prayers regularly at katyandtheword.com.
The grace of God is assured, and the healing of God is not just of the body, but instead a healing of forgiveness of sins and a restoration to one’s community. God’s grace is such that we are fully restored in all things. God takes care of our full being and self.
Inhale: God full of grace Exhale: Fill me with your Spirit
Inhale: God redeems us Exhale: God fills us with Good things
Inhale: God sent us Jesus Exhale: Jesus Loves me
Call to Worship: Bless the Lord, O my Soul Let all the is within me, Bless God’s Name Bless the Lord, O my soul, do not forget God’s benefits God forgives all of my iniquities and redeems me Come let us praise God who redeems us from the Pit Come let bless the Lord, our Redeemer whose grace lives in all forgiveness
Call to Confession: Jesus welcomes any in need to come and be comforted, come let us present ourselves to Jesus Christ.
Prayer of Confession: God we confess that it is hard to believe in any kind of healing or wholeness, whether it is physical or emotional. We find it hard to believe that you will forgive us and heal us. Remind us that we, like the paralytic man, do not have to do it alone we pray. (Silent Confession)
Prayer of Confession; Jesus Christ, you assure us that to confess our sins is enough, so here we are, confessing that we are imperfect, confessing that we need healing, confessing that we are too like the paralytic man than we like—in need of healing in more than one way. Forgive us our sins and teach us to accept our imperfections we pray. Remind us that forgiveness is more important than perfections we pray. (Silent Confession) Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News, Jesus Christ knows us, loves us and redeems us, He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Come let us proclaim the Good News to one another In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: God loves us and redeems us, crowning us with steadfast love and mercy—as huge are the heavens are—that is how much God’s love is for us. As far as the East is from the West, so far God removes our sins from us. God has love and compassion for us, loving us from everlasting to everlasting, may we carry that love and compassion into the world. Amen.
Taize: Nada Te Turbe
Prayer Activity: Option 1: Create Cards of Love and Compassion for people—in congregation or not, present or not, friends, family, etc. Spreading the love and grace and compassion of God in the Spirit of the communal grace and support of who God is. Use Markers, Crayons, Stickers, Stamps to create these cards. Have pre-folded cards and envelopes ready to address—have your care ministry deacons, etc. ready to stamp the cards and send them early the next week. Bless the cards at the end of worship
Option 2: Sing a Hymn, Taize at the end of worship and remind everyone that they are sealed in the love and forgiveness of God: Give everyone a Sticker or Stamp in honor of that Seal.
Taize Option: Bless the Lord My Soul
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for Entire Liturgy$75 (you decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword at gmail, Cash App $bookkats GoFundMe
A reflection on the ongoing violence in Gaza, CW: war, death violence against children
God I hear her in the middle of the night
Sometimes when my children run around the house in their ruckus game of Hide and Seek (which I do not tell them they are too old for) their teenage feet sound like hippos With the hunger to go with it a trail of crumbs going up and down the steps
I do not yell at them for the noise the chaos the mess
I hear Rachel weeping All the way from Gaza it is a whispered choking sound
Her snuffling lament It sounds both angry and full of hurt
And I can hear it all too often echoing across the oceans
Rachel is weeping for her children
She refuses all comfort I see her pacing Unable to eat or sleep because her children are buried under rubble or blown to pieces
Her children who were scrounging for food and licking the rain off of gutters Her children who she packed up in the middle of the night
First to travel to one part of the world and then another In the bitter cold In hats and gloves knitted by an old Auntie, who unrolled all the wool they had Just to cover the children
And then in a blink of violence
Rachel’s children are gone And sometimes her eyes play tricks on her And she thinks that she sees them Out of the corner of her eye or in the line marching towards a border Blocked by soldiers Even as her heart beats
They are gone They are lost I can’t find them
Rachel weeps the tears flow so that she does not notice them any longer she does not notice…
Jeremiah 31:15 Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
Picture of the wall written on by these students, which is lovely because it gives a fuller story of the conflict which is complicated by the terrorist group Hamas who wanted this war, the corrupt governance of Netanyahu and the anti-semitism throughout the world that begs for a safe place for Jewish people to exist and be (and this summary does not even do the situation justice, however this poem expresses some of the pain of this moment) https://lisaschirch.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/rachel-is-weeping-at-the-separation-wall/
With thanks to Rev Kyle Delhagan and Presbyterian Women for finding the image
Disciples want to get close to Jesus, Jesus continually points the disciples to look outward Kneeling with Christ :When Jesus Comes Every Knee will bow, Because Christ will return as he came, Kneeling to Serve And we will Kneel to be Beside him The Promise of a New Kin-dom A World Beyond Capitalism, Breaking Capitalism
Call to Worship I will bless the Lord at all times Praise shall continually be in my mouth Let my soul make its boast in the Lord Let the humble hear and be glad Let us hear the good news, and be warmed by it Let us taste and see that God is good together Come, magnify the Lord with me, for God is humble to be with us Let us exalt the name of God together
Lent 2: Serving God: Whole Person/Confession & Serving God
Breath Prayer Option God is with us God Knows us
Call to Confession: Let us confess ourselves to Jesus Christ, the one who is human with us and for us, and so he accepts us as we are.
Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we are sometimes ashamed, we are afraid to come with our full selves. Afraid that we are incomplete, or not enough. We are afraid, and so we find it hard to serve. But you reassure us, that fear is part of the process, and that you will always answer and take care of us. Help us when we are afraid we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Hear this, God answers and delivers us, forgiving us so that we are radiant with the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of The Day/Dedication: God who sees us as complete and calls us by name in the midst of our struggles, lead us towards a faith that helps us to serve in a way that is not about ability* but about faith we pray. Amen.
Hymn Suggestions: What Does the Lord Require of You, Taste and See, Lift High the Cross
Taize Option: Lord Remember Me
Children’s Activity: Self Portraits–talk about how everyone is different and how God knows us and loves us exactly how we are, and how each of us have imperfections like most handmade work
*Healing stories have a potential to turn ableist really quickly. Though it is amazing that Bartimaeus is healed, it is the fact that Jesus saw him as a full and complete person (notice how he is even named!), and took his faith as a priority that might be the most important aspect of this story.
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for Entire Liturgy $75 (you decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Themes: Disciples want to get close to Jesus, Jesus continually points the disciples to look outward Kneeling with Christ :When Jesus Comes Every Knee will bow, Because Christ will return as he came, Kneeling to Serve And we will Kneel to be Beside him The Promise of a New Kin-dom A World Beyond Capitalism, Breaking Capitalism
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for entire Liturgy $75 (you can decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword at gmail.com, Cash App $bookkats GoFundMe, if you wish to send a check please contact me for info
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for entire Liturgy $75 (you can decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword at gmail.com, Cash App $bookkats GoFundMe if you wish to send a check please contact me for info
If you want an experiential, small group writing experience, here it is
Let’s Write Liturgy Workshop
Now Offered at Two Times, in the Eastern Time Zone
please email with your preferred date
Cost is $50
Do you want to learn how to write prayers and liturgy? Psalms and Calls to Worship? Confessions and Personal Prayers? This Zoom Workshop is designed for all levels and experiences for people to engage in prayer writing–using the scripture as your guide.
Led by Katy Stenta, Pastor, Writer and Educator
Who is ready for the next Liturgy Workshop?
Come and let’s have a writing experience together!
For more information to sign up, email Katyandtheword at gmail.com. Titled “Liturgy” indicate which date you want
Katy Stenta is a regular contributor to Sermonsuite, RevGalBlogPals, and is published in Enfleshed, Presbyterian’s Today and Outlook. She received her undergraduate in English and History and Minor on Philosophy at Oberlin, her M. Div. and MA in Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is all but dissertation for her Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She also writes personal prayers regularly at katyandtheword.com.
It was a delight to be invited to Holy Shenanigans Podcast! Artist and Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman invited me over to her podcast and we had an amazing conversation, do pop over and listen to this relaxing way to enter the new year.
What are “Star Words” anyway? Welcome to a brand new year of sacred (non-stuffy) Holy Shenanigans! This season is exciting, with opportunities for fresh starts, but can be a time of overwhelming pressure to persue perfection. Well meaning resolutions can go sideways – fueled by sales efforts of the “wellness industry” in service to capitalism.
Join Rev. Tara Eastman, as she shares the spiritual practice of choosing an annual “Star Word” and gentle options for spiritual renewal with special guest, author: Rev. Katy Stenta.
Katy Stenta is a PCUSA pastor, writer, workshop leader and community builder. She is currently vice moderator for Albany Presbytery, regular contributor to Sermonsuite and leads workshops on writing, particularly prayer and liturgy. Her conversational prayers and psalms are used by people and churches all over the world from KatyandtheWord.com and she is all but dissertation from completing her Doctorate in Ministry in Creative Writing as a public theologian at Mr Roger’ alma mater Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
In 1 month, I will need to have finished drafting the big one, a 25 page paper theologizing (really rationalizing in a theological way) my poetry. Here is a pic of the authors I am using ((3 are accurate))–though I will prob use a smaller work by Moltmann. I am currently at a coffee shop sitting down to try to get it together. Pray for me, and all of my classmates. We are not all graduating this year, but there are still THIRTY FIVE of us in the program. The exact same number that started. We have all stuck, and I believe in my soul that we are ALL going to graduate. So send us all your good spells, wishes and prayers please. As for me, I am REALLY trying to finish this year. Thank you for all of your support. Every donation from $5 to $500 has helped me to be able to WRITE, and to SHARE my writings! As you can see I’ve Almost completely fundraised through this final year! Can you believe it??? When I started I could not imagine asking for help for 3 years, much less receiving it. I have been overwhelmed!!! Thank you so much! I believe in my class, our work, and even me! https://gofund.me/6e3e45b9
God, My. heart broke a little bit more for the children in Iowa fresh off their winter break shattered by a gunman who thought violence was the only answer
I thought it might be too numb after a pandemic after the attack/war in Ukraine after the horrific genocide in Gaza*
After a kidnapping one campsite over from where my same aged child was at Boy Scout camp
after letting go of my church job after a job let go of me after numerous other shootings
I wondered if grief would start to taste bitter like too old coffee or chocolate on my tongue
But the salt of my tears are refreshing as they drip upon my arm in an impossible angle ………….. ………….. And the though comes unbidden that maybe …………..
………….. maybe this time there will be enough of us tired of violence to be heard
as I weep for the violence of the world I think of Miriam, mother of Moses and the amazing midwives who protected babies of another people of the Wise Magi–crafty enough to avoid Herod, during the season of epiphany
I think about, the bravery of being vulnerable
and here I am…………..
waiting …………..
…………..
…………..
…………..
for our hearts
to break…………..
…………..
enough…………….
…………..
…………..
to change…………..
…………..
*Please note, my heart is also breaking for Israel, and the horrors done by Hamas and the way it rationalizes antisemitism and apocalyptic evangelism everywhere, this conflict is terrible, and it is really hard to talk bout the complexity of what is going on here. However, the US seems to be complicit in the particular aspect I am naming.
Feel free to use/adapt/change with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
katyandtheword 