Tag: beatitudes

Protest Beatitudes

Blessed* are the protestors
They hold the foretaste Justice on their tongue
It tastes like Community

Blessed are the arrested
They are the forerunners of Liberation
For they know that the root of Liberation is the same as Salvation: Soteria

Blessed are the kidnapped, the human trafficked, the aching families separated
The are tears running down our faces

Blessed are the gassed, the rubber bulleted the trampled
They are voice of the muted, the embodiment of empathy, the spirit of our movement

Blessed are artists, the youth, the elders with wisdom, the marginalized with unique perspectives
They are are prophets giving us ears to hear and hearts to understand

Blessed are the newest among the fold, the awkward, the uncomfortable and uncertain
They are the students, reminding us that there is always more to learn

Blessed are the disparate opinions: the go faster and go slow, the people of faith and the atheists, the Black, Brown and White and all to privileged.
We are the movement, figuring out how to work together, imagining a better system than the one that exists now, may it be so.

*In Aramaic (the native tongue of Jesus) Blessings Baruach is not a passive word, but a word to activate you. You are not blessed. You are gifted with things so you can work with them and use them because you are called to them. Therefore let us be blessed and bless one another in our works. –according to Elias Chacour former ArchBishop of Jerusalem in the Eastern Orthodox Church

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

A poster of a yellow chicken and a yellow background. There are black speech bubbles all around the chickens head. Each bubble had swords in them handwritten in white. Words are from bottom left around head to the right, each bubble word is in quotes. “Ha” “ha” “ha” “a joke” “taco” “man baby” “no creepy rambling losers” “no kings” “June14” and “weak ass.” Written in darker yellow on each side of the chicken “we have” “power” above the yellow words are 2 black lightning bolts. Below the yellow words are “more info bookings.org” and “fight for democracy” written in black. Artwork by Martha Rich (copyright 2025)

No Kings Graphic by MarathRic63 Chicken in Yellow “We Have Power” Moreinfo Nokings.org Taco, A Joke, Power, Fight for Democracy, No Kings,

#bless and #blessing #slatespeak #reLENTless

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Genesis 12:1-4

I was able to take a pilgrimage to Israel in Seminary and meet Archbishop of Jerusalem Father Elias Chacour, who was doing work to build schools to education Jews, Muslims & Christians together to sow peace.

Father Chacour said that “blessing” has a very active meaning in his (and Jesus’s) native tongue of Aramaic.

To be blessed, means to be called to work into God. In essence every time we read that someone is “Blessed” we should probably actually translate it as Genesis 12:2 “You are blessed, now go and be a blessing” (Read the Beatitudes this way, and I guarantee it will rock your world)

I love it. Sometimes I think I want to start a new church plant and call it

Achoo ministries

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Bless and be  Blessing

Its catching

Blessings are funky, because we try to think that they are limited. Throughout the New Testament the disciples are worried about how liberal Jesus blesses and heals people. Their attitude continues to be “shouldn’t you save some of that for later/more of it for us” As if there is a LIMIT to the amount of blessings int he world. I can imagine Jesus continually chuckling at their confusing and explaining, again, that this is not how blessings work.

The most modern parallel I can see to this is safety. In the modern era we act like there is only so much safety to go around, we have to grab our safeness “quick” before its all taken. Also, counterwise, if someone else is safe, that means we cannot also be safe, because that group has “taken up” the safety.

Objectively put, we can see how ridiculous the idea of limited safety and blessing is….but the church, and the United States continue to act as if blessing and safety are limited.

When in fact, when one person is more safe, the entire community is more safe.

When in fact when you are blessed, then you also are being called to go and be a blessing and share it out as much as possible.

How changed is our life is we act like blessings and safety (i.e. Peace) are actually from the never-ending bounty of God.

….Its catching….