Star Words, a Podcast

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.

There is another way to engage in new beginnings in ways that feed our hearts, minds and souls. 2024 can be a time to attend to and offer yourself spiritual practices that are supportive, compassionate AND sane! https://holyshenanigans.buzzsprout.com/…/14267535-star…#starwords#holyshenaniganspodcast

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

Dissertation/Book/Doctorate Update

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

Magi, the Magical Wisdom

Magi
because
Venturing out
is Magic

Wisdom
is magic
Taking a leap of Faith
is also magic

Packing up for the Journey
Being willing to be Lost
Asking for help
and directions

Glorifying others
Going to an unknown land
Honoring a child
Listening to a woman
a mother
not having to be informed by an angel

Completing the journey
and going home
to tell to the story

Putting all the pieces together
to have a realization
of how this is going to effect
and change your own
life

having an epiphany
is what being a Magi
experiencing the magic
of Christmas
Is all about

May you follow that
Star of Faith
all year

Picture from the well beloved Wandering Wisemen Picture Ministry which is having its final year this year found https://www.facebook.com/thewanderingwisemen

(Epiphany Star Generator Link: https://perchance.org/starwords2022)

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

My Poem about rejecting my Star Word: https://open.substack.com/pub/katystenta/p/p-e-f-e-c-t?r=1qkzy4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true

Let’s Write Liturgy Workshop: https://open.substack.com/pub/katystenta/p/lets-write-liturgy-workshop?r=1qkzy4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true
Cost $50

Heartbreak, re: Iowa

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”

Body Prayer

Opening Ourselves to the Work of God, A Prayer by Pastor Katy Stenta KatyandtheWord.com

(Please stand if you are able, if not you can do this prayer seated))

God thank you for bringing us here (Hands to heart)

Holy Spirit extend your presence across this space to our companions (stretch your hands in front of you as far as you can)

Jesus, spread your love and care that we are practicing here, to all of our neighbors and across the world (Open hands wide in an open armed gesture)

Bless us please, remind us that we are connected to all those saints who have come before us (Stretch your hands up as high as you can)

And help us to extend our work so that it touch those who come after us (Reach down as low as your can, then return upright)

Stretch us (Lean one direction)

Mold us (Lean the other direction()

And help us to become our true baptized selves in Jesus Christ (return to center)

In Jesus Christ we pray (Return hands to heart)

Amen

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

(Used in Sacredcalls.com Leadership Training Materials)

Let’s Write Liturgy

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?

Join me for a peaceful, hands on writing experience

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.

P-e-f-e-c-t

God,
this is the time of year
to reflect

To think about all that has been
accomplished
or not

We human really like progress
but really hate change
How did you do that God?
Make us this way?

We want to be prefect, pefect
perfect
Whatever that means….

I am, as you know too well God
a recovering perfectionist
so full of goals
Give me a minute
and I can give you plans, dreams
ideas to fill a jar

But this year
when I got the Star Word* intention
I politely

declined

I am trying to fall into God
this time

I am trying to
wait

I am trying to
Sabbath

I am trying to do this thing
perhaps you have heard of it

Trust in God

It is not easy
I am more of the
goal-setting, work-hard-and-be-rewarded
early-bird-gets-the-worm
plan your way out of catastrophe person

But I am not a catastrophe
or a trophy

I am beautifully
and fiercely made

And perhaps
unfinished–and
that thought should not
be scary
but
comforting

God has more to do with
us

There is peace
to be made

Hunger for righteousness
to be fed

Help that needs
to be given
(and perhaps more scarily)
asked for

So here I go
into a new year–
reaching up
and out

full of prayer
and letting go
of intentions

Amen.

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

*Star Word is an Epiphany Practice to pull a word to help set an intention/focus for the upcoming year

New Year Blessings

2024
A year of erasers
Cloud watching
And Companionable silences
May your journey be light burdened
Your books be easy to read
And shows easy to watch
(Or easy to put down if they are not)

May you have permission to fail
To cry
To take comfort

I hope you have the good kind of phone calls
And comforting visits
And good boundaries

And may you taste something amazing
And feel at home in your body
And sit with beloved ones

I hope you feel enjoyment in something fun
May you be silly for no reason
And I hope that 2023 is not about what you do
But that you are able to be your full self
And be safe
And healthy
And in community

May you touch the new year
With a sense of who you are
And with a sense of wistfulness

Because we are worth who we are
Becoming
May your blessings increase in the New Year

Prayer for Precedented Times

God,
I am praying for a boring year
after
Wars on Terror
Great Recessions
Housing Collapse
A Pandemic

And those were only
the large scale events

I pray for an uneventful new year
with uninteresting times
and very precedented events

I pray for peace
in your personal life
your home
your town
and city
and country

I hope that thing seem corny
and maybe not normal (because what is that anyway)
but ordinary enough
that pieces of trust
can be built up again

I pray that this year does not feel like a bludgeon
but comes in like a lamb
and out like a lamb

I pray that there are moments of rest
spaces of sanctuary
places of healing
and times of rebuilding

I pray for a prededented year
full of laughter at jokes
you may have already heard
smiles with friends
you have time to see
and book and shows
you feel comfortable enough
to revisit, with glee

I pray for comfort
for safety in the known
for rituals that you love–
your favorite haunts
your tastiest meals
your places to just be

I hope you are able to
repeat yourself without fear

But most of all
I pray that you have
an uneventful
New Year

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/Share with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

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