pandemic – Page 2 – katyandtheword

Pandemicking, A Prayer

God,

I’m thinking about how we are all here

pandemicking,

all day everyday.

Even though we long for the day

that we have pandemicked,

we are just not there yet.

Just as you are the God

who is Justicing, Gooding, Blessinginging

(because the gerund* verb tense is the best)

the timeframe of this pandemicking

is equally ongoing, and nebulous,

and I am aware that the echoes of this

Pandemicking, will actually live on in me

forever.

In truth I will never stop Pandemicking.

Like those who were Immigrating,

never will, in some sense stop being immigrants,

and those who have survived something,

never will, in some sense, stop being survivors.

And today

I’m thankful that you, Jesus

–who fled to Egypt, lived under occupation,

grew up an outsider and were almost thrown off a cliff,

You Jesus of all people,

get that.

And some days I’m bitter that

in some ways

I’ll always be pandemicking

and on somedays, I wonder, but do I really want to unlearn

all the things I needed to know?

About the cracks in society?

About those who we have lost!

About who are being forgotten?

About what needs to change?

After all, what is greater discipleship than that?

So, God. I’ll be here. Surviving this pandemic.

Pandemicking.

Every single day.

And thankful that I have the gerund tense to describe it.

But I’m also grateful that I have a God

Who gets it–

and gives us a knapsack of the right kind of more gerunds,

to do this pandemic thing,

and for being a pandemicking God along the way.

Here Goes God, more Pandemicking….

Come with me…

Amen.

Pandemic Prayers & Resources

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta and please give to my 2nd year of Doctorate of Ministry in Creative Writing at https://gofund.me/aaeb4910

*Gerund: is a verb that we have turned into a noun with ing like swimming. In ancient Hebrew gerund was a tense that can also mean present participle, it means ongoing without a definite end, when it comes to God I think of it as the inging verbs.

Comfort My People, A Prayer for Celebrating Christmas This Year

We don’t know how we are going to get through this season,

They sat through my office and said,

And their pain sat visceral in the room.

And I nodded along and prayed that they could find places

where their grief could be invited along with them and given a place at the table.

God, this is a prayer that Christmas can be more of a season of comfort

for those who need it.

I sat in the cards shop the other day,

and could not find one card

that expressed the comfort that I wanted to say during this season

of pandemic-Christmas tide. And I think, God

of what it exactly it was that the shepherds,

and the (actually unnumbered) Magi

and John the Baptist and Mary were looking for on that dark night.

The tidings were Good News of Great Joy yes,

but also, I think, it was comfort that they hungered for

Wasn’t that the fulfillment proclaimed in the Magnificat?

Wasn’t that the first title given to Jesus in Isaiah?

Not mighty* or everlasting father! No!

The first thing named for the Savior to come Counselor! Comforter, and a Wonderful one at that.

Because Lord knows this advent we are black with mourning and grief.

There is no comfort candle on the advent wreath (at least not traditionally)

But that’s who you are, Holy Spirit, Comforter.

And Lord knows we need comfort!

God, may we let this season be one not just of Joy or Hope–

if we aren’t feeling those things, let that be ok.

Help us to make this, for those who need it,

be a season of Comfort.

Help us to create a Season of Comfort, for the lonely, the lost, the grieving, I pray.

Comfort your people. Please God, because you know, we sure do need it.

And maybe next year, we will add a comfort candle to the wreath–

Til then, comfort your people we pray.

Amen.

Feel Free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Thanks to @byAndriaIrwin for the inspirational tweet

*note that the Hebrew word for this actually translates as God of many mounds, which means God of many worships spots (powerful/accessible) and God of many breasts/nourishing places. We have later shorthanded it as mighty.

An Advent Prayer for the World Weary

Here’s a Prayer

for anyone who is going into Advent Tired

Weary of almost two years of

pandemicking

Two years of pastoring or preaching or caring or writing prayers for people

who are ill, or caretaking,

or trying to find a bed in the hospital, or a spot for surgery.

Here’s a prayer for a timeframe where the hard things have been harder

and the loneliness has felt excruciating,

and the reassessing has hit like a hammer

and the promised whisper of the baby Jesus

is hard to hear over the to do lists,

and the worrying

and apocalyptic understanding of health/political/biogotted infrastructures and economies

of this time and space.

And Lord,

It makes us wonder if this is some of what Mary felt in tumultuous and occupied Jerusalem

when she faced the angel,

overwhelmed by it all

We too feel her determination

As she opened her mouth and

found that the words that tumbled out were

It doesn’t have to be this way!

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It doesn’t have to be this way!

Magnify the Lord!

Bring down the Mighty

Fill the Hungry with Good Things.

So as we enter this Advent, tired and hungry and lonely God.

Remind us that,Advent is a good time for these feelings, Lord.

Advent is about preparation,

and understanding that we are ready for Jesus!

Lord,

I think we need Christ right now,

And that’s ok,

Remind us that it’s ok,

It’s ok to really, truly need Jesus!

and traditional to be world weary at Advent.

And help us to sit with that a bit I pray.

Amen.

Here’s a Prayer

for anyone who is going into Advent Tired

Weary of almost two years of

pandemicking

Two years of pastoring or preaching or caring or writing prayers for people

who are ill, or caretaking,

or trying to find a bed in the hospital, or a spot for surgery.

Here’s a prayer for a timeframe where the hard things have been harder

and the loneliness has felt excruciating,

and the reassessing has hit like a hammer

and the promised whisper of the baby Jesus

is hard to hear over the to do lists,

and the worrying

and apocalyptic understanding of health/political/biogotted infrastructures and economies

of this time and space.

And Lord,

It makes us wonder if this is some of what Mary felt in tumultuous and occupied Jerusalem

when she faced the angel,

overwhelmed by it all

We too feel her determination

As she opened her mouth and

found that the words that tumbled out were

It doesn’t have to be this way!

It doesn’t have to be this way!

Magnify the Lord!

Bring down the Mighty

Fill the Hungry with Good Things.

So as we enter this Advent, tired and hungry and lonely God.

Remind us that,Advent is a good time for these feelings, Lord.

Advent is about preparation,

and understanding that we are ready for Jesus!

Lord,

I think we need Christ right now,

And that’s ok,

Remind us that it’s ok,

It’s ok to really, truly need Jesus!

and traditional to be world weary at Advent.

And help us to sit with that a bit I pray.

Amen.

Complete List of Pandemic Prayers and Resources

With Thanks to April Fiet, Andre Henry, David Hogg and Kevin Miguel Garcia for the Inspirational Tweets

Originally Published at RevGalBlogPals https://revgalblogpals.org/2021/12/03/an-advent-prayer-for-the-world-weary/

If you enjoy my prayers please consider giving to my Doctorate in Creative Writing. I write extensive prayers and resources for free and usually have over 100 views a day. If everyone gave $10 I’d be done in two weeks! https://gofund.me/70a114f9

Please feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

In Charge: a Prayer

Holy Spirit,

Let me tell you, it’s a good thing you are in charge,

because….

whew.

I do not want to be in charge of all of this.

The things that I am in charge of are–

to put it lightly

hard.

And in a time such as this

I never know

what to do next

or what will change

(Jesus take the wheel)

So anyway back to

You being in charge

and how very VERY good that is

Because you know how to get things done–

with the eagerest of resources,

and the clumsiest of servants.

So here I am, meager and clumsy.

Ready to serve,

let me know what to do next

I pray.

Amen.

Feel Free to share/adapt/use with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Pandemic Prayers & Resources

Mundane Prayers

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A Blessing for (Surviving) Today

Here’s a blessing for you.

Because you are still here,

And it’s been a year, of ::gestures inarticulately:: everything.

And we need all the blessings we can get.

So here’s a bless this mess.

A blessing on your head,

one that grants you good dreams,

and moments of respite,

and times to let go,

and moments to connect with your beloveds,

and reminders that your worth is not defined by your productivity

and that its ok not to be ok

and that this is not the new normal, nor should it be.

So all the blessings–

for being here,

and doing the things

and being you.

Keep at it! Take breaks,

Drink water, take care of yourself,

and be blessed,

For you are a beloved child of God.

No matter what.

God bless you, Child of God.

Today, Tomorrow, and Always.

Amen.

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

Pandemic Prayers & Resources

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No Plans, A Prayer

I’m not making any plans God,

I just wanted to let you know.

As great memes about fall plans, and their eminent demise,

are circling the internet, helping us to laugh until we don’t cry.

It doesn’t mean, that I don’t know what comes next.

There’s fall, and there’s school, and Halloween.

There’s stewardship and Thanksgiving and football.

I have a general sense as to what is going on,

and I have a sense of the rhythm.

But between, you and me Jesus, and the universe.

I thought I’d let you know,

that I’ve decided that I can’t really put any plans down

on anything as permanent as paper

no grand projects to pursue,

no pie in the sky goals–

Because I really don’t know what is coming next,

so here I am. The girl who loves the list,

the family organizer,

I am now without a plan.

I’m not giving up.

I’m still doing the next thing I have to do.

I still know what has to get done.

but its all way more ephemeral,

and instead of plans, its more like

that I’m making

sketches and blessings

and dreams

and relationships

(It sounds more perfect and beautiful than it is believe me)

I’m not making any plans God.

I’m just making do.

How about you, God?

Are you making do too?

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

There Are Just Too Many Hilarious “Fall Plans Vs. Delta Variant" Memes (20+ Memes)

A Prayer for Chaplain-ing an Apocalypse

God, No one told me that apocalyptic events were going to go one for so long.

I had never considered, when I watched the floods and fires in movies,

when havoc of the post apocalypse was depicted in my novels–too often it was skated over about just how long the chaos ensued.

So here we are

After years of warnings and castrophic governances–

a pandemic of, as I used to say as teen, totally epic portions, did not strike me as such a long term event.

I know, I knew that recovery would take forever.

Thank God, that I have it drilled into me, that recovery takes longer than the actual event, and I am aware and girded, appropriately, to start healing.

But I didn’t know

That my kids will be entering their third year of pandemic schooling.

That I would be jostling back and forth between regulations and meeting the needs of so many differing circumstances of ministry from 2019 til the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty one.

That I would still be stuck today in this:

mindset-shifting, world-changing, Revelation-timeframe-of-the-particular-dragon-that-is-the-double-pandemic-of-Covid-and-Racism-not-to-mention-the-ongoing-Climate-Disaster thing

and a multi year timeframe to just have the apocalyptic event itself, was not quite on my schedule Lord.

I thought catastrophes were sudden, and fast.

Where is my cut scene?

I hear we hit the economic depressive climax (lowmax?) in April 2020?

Just goes to show that money is a human made thing, don’t it God?

Lord, as we face this ongoing apocalyptic event,

As we minister in these times.

Give us what it is we need.

(Whatever that might be, because, I’m not sure what that is right now)

Because this story isn’t even in the the rearview mirror yet, and we are not yet ready to know how to tell it yet.

A colleague said it feels like we are Ron Weasley, working with a broken Wand,

doing the best we can–

No magic wand, no program, no methodology to “fix things” just presence and patience and prayer.

and maybe sitting down and reading Revelation again, or John, or Acts,

or Frederick Buechner, or Elie Wiesel or Martin Luther King Jr or J. R. R. Tolkien or Ursula K. Le Guin or Toni Morrison or Langston Hughes or Madeline L’engle or Octavia Butler or N. K. Jemison or….or….

Because God knows,

We’ve had to Chaplain Apocalypses before,

and we will have to do it again.

Be with us as we do, we pray.

Amen.

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

Pandemic Prayers & Resources

Birds & Plagues

My breath caught God,

When I heard again,

the report of the plague

that was striking

the little birds

and the recommendations

to keep the birds six feet apart

I suppressed a messy sob when I thought about

How your eye is on the sparrows

just like its been on ours, as we fumble

on the bird feeders, on the masks, on the vaccines.

Bird by Bird,

Piece by piece.

God, your eye is on the sparrow.

And I think for a while, mine will be too.

Even though it’s sad, and hard to watch

A bird plague is much more manageable right now.

And if I can manage a that,

Then I know you can manage ours.

Even if the light seems to be farther away.

Even if Olympics and uneven vaccine distributions and delta variations

and one step forward and two steps back seem to be the norm

even then, maybe I’ll remember that you know how

…to take down the bird feeders

so….

In your Eye. I think I’ll rest a while God.

and leave this half unfinishished prayer in your lap

while I fidget with the birdseed, and watch the birds….

Amen.

Praying for Summer

Praise you God, because from you all blessings flow

And some kind of summer beckons.

Different from the endless summer of last year, where we were all so lonely we could spit.

Different from the fall where promises of vaccines were hazy and masks were packed into book bags with lunches

and we held our breath.

Now after giving up all of my free time to digitally school my eldest, and truck my other two back and forth to school.

Now after a year of basically nothing but school (and thank God eventually church), no clubs, no friends, no activities.

After a winter of depression

And a spring of exhaustion

And a Post-Pandemic, which, maybe, sort a, might be starting,

but sure as anything hasn’t really become a reality yet….

–For India and Brazil, Lord hear our prayers–

A year of mostly rewardless schooling has ended, and we are finally able to send our students and teachers back with our thanks.

And Now…

Summer beckons, and God I hope you guide us through.

I hope you help us to wind our way through this time of huge transition

Because we have not yet begun to feel the aftershocks of all that is different in our lives.

And I keep hearing hints

Of mourning those we have lost and adjusting to what life is now

Of mass retirements, and considered quittings,

Of reprioritizations and reorganization.

And so, I’m praying that I can string together some pieces of summer

with ice cream

and sunshine

and water fights.

Just enough pieces of summer, to feed my soul.

Until I figure how the hell we are going to do the next good thing.

Give us summer we pray.

Amen.

Please feel free to adapt/share/use with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Neverending

God, this is the week that never ends, in the year that never ends.

Always, towards the end of the school year there is an impossible week.

Where spring and summer activities collide in their not quite done, and just getting started-ness.

Always there is a week where the schedule doesn’t work, every day has triple obligations, and on top of that everyone is cranky.

And then, someone doesn’t sleep, and someone else doesn’t feel well or the car has trouble or the pet has to go to the vet or the computer quits working or a something else impossible happens.

God, timing is everything.

And this year, when I have spent more time with parts of my family than ever, and seen other parts and my friends almost not all…

This year when vacations and retreats are just gasps of breath in the midst of survival mode…

This year when all the “fun things” I thought I was doing to have fun turned out to be coping mechanisms essential to surviving, as they have fallen by the wayside and the to do list somehow continues while these other things don’t..

God Almighty, You know, how this year has been never-ending.

Like a song that is stuck in your head, nagging at you day in and day out, that’s how the pandemic works–always in the background, giving your headaches and heartaches. Always on the calendar as you figure out what to do and how to do it.

The stress presses down, on my head, on my heart, on my soul.

God, I have been praying without ceasing this year. I have cried and sighed and laughed and zoomed and emailed and turned on cameras and turned off camera, have put on masks and then then washed the masks, every single day of this never ending year.

I have examined every ache and sniffed and listened to every lonely heartache of my friends and family…..and taken-just-a-moment-to-center-myself all in prayer.

I am living into the rhythm of prayer Lord–one that is both structured and spontaneous, one that has been out loud and quiet, one where I’ve known exactly what to say and one where I’ve murmured nonsense to the Holy Spirit.

It’s the longest week, in the longest year I’ve ever lived.

So I will continue to pray, and live.

Thank God you are eternal, thank God that prayers do not cease, and are picked up by friends and families and churches and strangers when mine falter.

Thank God you are the song that never ends God.

Amen.

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