Advent is about waiting Because we are waiting For the poor to be filled with good things For women to believed For the prisoner to be set free For healing
We don’t need practice in waiting We know Christmas is a quiet participation in the miracle that is yet still unfolding
We want to participate in the waiting, and the greed smashing, equity making, creation beauty that is Christmas
So we are an advent people. Proclaiming the Magnificat together with Mary: Until the Alleluias of Christmas Are born
feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Do you know that an average over 200 people use my resources a day?
That means that everyone gave me $10 my Doctorate in Creative Ministry would be funded.
The next step is a double week intensive in January!
I have successfully funded 2 years in Creative Writing and shared resources thanks to all of the donations I have received thus far.
This means that every single contribution counts! It has been so meaningful to me to have your support along the way. I would not be writing without you. I have received contributions from $10-$500, and each of them have been so amazing.
If you have found my work useful, and are able to please give a donation. And if you need a receipt–drop me an email Katyandtheword at gmail and I’m happy to send your church a receipt for Katyandtheword resources
God, I know what it is to love And have nothing else.
I know what it is to be sick for a week, a month, a year and pray and hope for treatment And be stuck with nothing but waiting And illnesses wash over you–and you are stuck with surviving at such a time as this
I know what it is to see your beloved stuck in the throes of psychosis Screaming for you to help them And you are right there But they can’t hear or see your love at such a time as this
I know what it is to be the one talking to estranged family members hearing both sides of the story Knowing that both sides are right in their own way seeing the irony of how similar they and bearing the sadness of their loneliness and hurt during the holidays at such a time as this
I know what it is to worry about your kids getting sick And the dangers of gun violence that seem to be around every corner but that society has deemed that the economy is important, so you send them To school, to the theater, to the shopping center, to activities at such a time as this
I know what it is to act in love To make the best choice one can When there is not right choice Only the best choice at hand- After years of “once in lifetimes” wars, violences, protests, recessions and pandemics, until we learn the truth God at such a time as this
We are in an apocalyptic times: a great revealing of truths. In such a time as this I keep learning the authentic sacrifices of love: communication, doing one’s best, forgiveness, boundaries God, you don’t have to be Queen Esther to live in this advent world at such a time as this
We are all holding each other’s hands And walking each other home In such a time as this– God, I know you understand too I’m hanging onto that with both hands this advent, as I’m waiting at such a time as this
Let’s light a candle of love, especially at such a time as this, light this candle with us I pray Amen
Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Please Support my Writing, I am Funding some of my Doctorate in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian through donations https://gofund.me/554d36e3 Thank you to all those who have donated, I have successfully completed 2 years thanks to your support.
Here’s a Prayer for Advent For those are stuck in injustice for so long they seek justice with every breath they breathe and long for a new kind of liberation.
Here’s a prayer for those stuck in the throes of grief gnarled in the pain and cannot feel those who are holding their hands in darkness.
Here is a prayer those sick so prologuedly, they don’t remember what health feels like, and subsist instead on better days.
Here’s a prayer for the lonely whose teeth ache when they see companionship who lurk in the corners of libraries and shops and love to converse with strangers and angels unawares.
Here’s a prayer for the victims of violence and abuse from microagressions to verbal, from physical to assassination To all those who cannot be safe because where they are or who they are.
Here’s a prayer for those who just don’t know Lord They are just so tired and confused, and stuck They aren’t sure where to go next or what to do But they are certain that they need to figure out the next step.
Here’s a prayer for those on the edge of death, you know the ones God, waiting for that next family gathering or that last visit, or the strength to let go– Or even Christmas to pass, in order to join the rest of the Saints.
This is a prayer for all those waiting, Maybe what we have is not yet hope, perhaps it is hoping for hope But that is enough to light the candle together That is enough to wait for God together, for the miracle whispers to us.
It whispers of the one who is to come: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Purveyor of Peace And Government will rest upon their shoulders– God, we are holding our breath, and light the candle hoping for hope.
We are praying with the world today, O Come, O Come Emmanuel we Pray. Amen.
Feel Free to Use/Share/Adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
If you enjoy my writing and wish to support my work feel free to donate to my writing.
I run this website pay for its fees, administrate all the things, provide doc copies to anyone who asks, write all the liturgy, etc and do everything based on donations.
I know that there are big and small churches and all kinds of people in the world all are in need of timely resources.
I started to publish after I reworked other resources one too many times to be relevant and not bogged down with sexism or bigotry (it’s an ongoing and imperfect task but I’m striving to be ever more inclusive in all that I do, you never stop learning)—and after wishing there was timely prayers for current events, so that is a bulk of what I do here.
The most common way to donate is to my gofundme for my Doctorate in Creative Writing https://gofund.me/ac35f3b5
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The Membership Questions: If I Wrote them Expanded: Do you reject Evil Of Guns Of White Supremacy Of the False Gospel of Hate Of the Nationalism Of trying to Control Your Child’s Life Do you reject the idolatry of Power, Greed, Imperialism, Capitalism and Control?
Do you surrender to the Loving and Searing Truth of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who opens your heart in such away that you continually examine your life and ask–am I living in a way that adhere’s to God’s Life Giving Standards?
Do I, to Love my Enemies, Are the Imprisoned? Give Food to those in Near, Somehow free myself To Not Judge those different than you and to Welcome those who are different in Gender, Race, Sexuality, Age and Ability to my House, Home, Table and Life?
Do I affirm the Apostles Creed, as far as I understand it, knowing that it is a lifelong mystery. Do I affirm what I know and commit to continual study of the Apostles Creed and God?
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