Tag: peace

ShutDown, A Prayer

Am
Heartsick

Healthcare
SNAP

Lord Hear our Prayers


Vaccines
Homelessness

“Cease”less
Cease fires

Peace-less
Talks

Rubble at the White
House

Workers

Without Pay

No Meds
No Food
No Water
No Care

Holy Spirit
Give us Rest

Politicians 
Who Talk

Another Nazi
Revealed

Another Person

Who won’t

Pass the Baton

Another 
Black Woman
Cassandra-d

Another Immigrant
Ripped
From Her Child

Lord Have Mercy

God 
Forgive Us

Teach us
Mercy

God
The Anger
Burns


And 
My Soul
Mourns


Teach
Our Hearts

We 
Pray

Teach 
A 
New 

Way 

To 
Be

Because
I Can’t

Exist


This Way
Anymore

Amen

A Tender Prayer: In the Aftermath

God,
I stand in prayer
for a country
where
guns are so glorified

That shooters
Think that
to go out
in a blaze of
gunfire
is better
Than getting
Care

Lord hear our prayer

Prince of Peace
We pray for all the
Victims of Violence
Those who lost
Their Beloved ones
Those who witnessed the
Devastation

Messiah Comfort them

Holy Spirit we pray
For all those who are
experiencing
and are experiencing
trauma as a result of
this tragedy
We pray
That we find a
way to change the Policies
to prevent gun violence
Before every single person
has to be touched
by Gun Violence


Come Holy Comforter, and hold us til we stop crying


Teach us to
Move beyond
Thoughts and Prayers

And how to Move and Act
With Purpose and Dfenition
of Peace
and Kin(g)dom Care
We Place ourselves
In your Tender Care
During this Time of Trouble
Amen

God, help us to recognize Superman

God,
I just saw
Superman

And I pray for
the day
when
movies
don’t hit
home
So hard

And the brown
children
in the midst of
war
waving a flag
Don’t break your
heart

And the world
Splitting in two
of a “Natural
Disaster”
doesn’t
make
your jaw clench

And God
I pray that
when people
cry because
the Lex Luthers
of the world
Make them
feel bad
And the immigrants
are the Superheroes

That the Holy Spirit
Keeps
Tapping them
On the shoulder
nipping
Them
in the
Ear
And
touching
them on their
heart

Because
Maybe art
Isn’t the one
Way through

But I’ll take
Blood,
Sweat,
Tears,
Votes

And
your favorite
Pop
Character

Because
At this point
Anything
To Welcome
people

to there revelation

God help us
Walk until
everyone
can see
the Superpuppy
as cute

and all earthlings
as Beloved

We pray.
Amen.



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

with thanks to my middle child Westley who loves all movies, and honors remakes and sequels, etc and more of the thing he loves and teaches a deep appreciation of all art–it’s good remember to take joy in all things (This movie was really good, but it is truly fun to walk in to everything with the attitude of, this will be fun)

Praying for Each Other


God
I know
That you said
Pray for our enemies

And I know
that you know
That you meant
When it’s confusing
And you can’t tell who
your enemy is

Pray for them

When the nuance is lost
and you fear for your children
and their children
and all the children (again, and again)
Pray

And I know
that you know
That you meant
The kind of Prayer that Meant
Cry
Sigh
Rest

And then get
Back to
Doing all you can
to be a Peacemaker

Whether that is
Vote
Call
Protest
Talk to People
Humanize

Because Sweet
Beautiful
Dusty
Footed Jesus
Who
Walked the Walk
I know
That you Know

That Prayer
Is the conversation
That we have

with ourselves
others
and you

To remind one another
That
we are
all human
In the end

So here I am
Praying
for
Peace

Praying
For my enemy
Because what is
an enemy
in this
World where
Everyone (pretty much)
Wants the same things

But someone
We all think
The ways to them
are opposite

And God
If you can help us
Stop
All the bombs
Everywhere

Please
I would be Grateful

Praying
In the Name of
The Prince of
Peace
Amen

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

Childhood, a Prayer

God there are so many
worries I have in
the world

But then I remember
that Ozma**
was restored
to rule
and got
her happy ending
and became a girl***
without any fuss at all

And that stories of
Defying Gravity
for
Different
Divergent
Witches
In not Pink Skins
are inspiring
Songs everywhere

and that Glinda too
realized
she needed a castle
with women

I remember that
Banksy is creating
and recreating
for Peace

I read all the
Science Fiction
and Fantasy
about acceptance

I remember
that people are
upset about
Woke
things
Because they
sell so well

And I take a deep breath
And sing
the Magnificat
Again

With Mary
As
We Advent
(Wait, Long, etc.)
again
for Jesus

*Footnote: Link above Mary Poppins Spoonful of sugar was inspired by the oral Polio vaccine which was given with a square of sugar to help the medicine go down. I am very worried about the discrediting of vaccines in this day of age. I am also worried because I have a child with autism, and although vaccines do not cause autism, time and time again people have insisted they basically would rather risk death then have a child with autism. It is a sobering thought.

**Footnote: Read Ozma of Oz, it is one of the first happy endings for LGBTQIA. Also L. Frank Baum wrote many, many women based upon his feminist mother-in-law, some of them funny, some of them strong, all of them amazing. There is a lot of variation in Oz, because it is fantasy. It is amazing, per usual. Wicked also has LGBTQIA acceptance obliquely within it, however L. Frank Baum’s stories are wide open for interpretation as most fantastic stories are.

***Footnote: “became a girl” is not quite right but it’s fantasy and this is poetry I don’t want to ruin for you…so excuse my clumsy wording for the gist of the mystery of the book that you will now have to read. 

No photo description available.

Joy

Joy
is not a platitude
though sometimes
we use it as a mask

Joy is not smile
Jesus loves you
it is not happiness

Have you seen
a joyful child?
the gift of their giggles
the wonder of life
borne from love
(yes I am writing
all bornes with
poetic “e”s this season)

Joy is rebellious
it is deep-rooted sense
of differentiated
Belonging
to Community
Creation
and Self
All at Once

it is the ability
to still Create
even in the Midst
of Grief

Joy is Art

Joy to the World
Is practicing
Advent
claiming the
Holy Imaginings
for better
How Much More
For Proclaiming Lament
And Claiming Tomorrow

Joy is the In-Breaking Christmas
In the Midst of Advent

Even the Ancient Priests had Proclaim in Pink
Excuse me I mean Rose
Because they could not hold back
the Gaudy Carols of Christmas
During the Long Season
Of Advent
(and not just because it used to be
Six Weeks instead of Four)

God, you know,
That we know,
We are tired of this Advent Season
Yet
Somehow
You Teach us Joy
In Children
In Art
In Gardens
In Our Deep Longings for More

Remind us that
Joy
is a
Revolution*
Amen
Amen

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

To read more about How Joy is a Revolution

https://aestheticsofjoy.com/joy-is-an-act-of-resistance-how-celebration-sustains-activism-2/

https://www.whatcompjc.org/blog/august-03rd-2020

“Incite Joy” By Gay Ross from your local bookstore

No More

Some days
They will
Not
Hurt
Nor
Destroy
On
My
Holy
Mountain
No
More

Any
More
Evermore
In any instance ever
No mourning
No more, no more, no more

Is all the prayer
I have left to pray.

Divinity in each other’s
Eyes
And mourning

No
More
Guns
No
More
Bombs
No
More
Apartheid
No more
Hostages
No more
Climate
Refugees

In the
Name of
All that
Is Holy
No
(Insert Your Favorite Curse Worship here)
More

Amen

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

Prayer for June

God who fills the world with good things

I am praying for rainbows of peace

As the school year draws to a close

And weary children struggle to make it

And Pride month starts with celebration, “rememories” (as my youngest calls them), and reminders that you are fiercely and beautifully made

I feel all if these emotions that smell like fresh cut lawns, sound like sudden hot thunderstorms, and nuzzle like my kitten at the end of a way over scheduled spring-to-summer season

God sometimes you know that pursing justice and sorting the laundry sometimes feel like that same thing

Mundane

Overwhelming

Vital

And yet

I think of how you continue to promise to fill the world with good things

Tuck a dandelion behind my ear as a symbol of hopeful weeds

And turn my worries into prayers once again

Feel free to use Share Adapt with credit to pastor Katy Stent “Katyandtheword”

Image from https://www.mainegardens.org/blog/for-the-love-of-dandelion/ Two dandelions growing, bright yellow with some blades of grass bright green against a cheerful dark background

How Many Times Lord

CW: Violent images

When I say,
How many times Lord?

I am not talking about some
nebulous math problem
that I want solved

I am more pointing to the fact
that the human brain
is incapable
of processing more
than a certain amount

of sensory
input

And the battering
of an apartheid
is so True
that my brain
has trouble processing the

Fact of the Matter
I know it, I see it, I say it

But I know
I have not processed it
the images, numbers and facts

the screams, blood and children

lie strewn across my brain
And all I can think is
How many times Lord?

It is a variation
But not the same
prayer I pray
about Gun Violence

The angry tears that clench my jaw
and make me a bleeding heart
That believes this time we will all figure out
how souls will out weigh the capitalism of violence

A rainbow in the sky promises

How Many Times?
Nonbinary Kids
Trans Women on Sports Teams
Trans Men trying to Dance

To Kill a Mockingbird is Banned

A White Woman in a Kitchen calls a Human Being Illegal
And calls for everyone to be scared

How Many Times Lord?

The Math of Getting it,
Doesn’t seem to be getting through

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