Tag: War

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

Another Psalm

I am tired
of starving children in wars
That we can help
in cutting aid
in efficiencies that cost
humanity

I am angry
at blatant misuse
abuses
of power
lies and misleadings
with little follow up
or repercussions
finger wagging
and learning from these
politicians for what

I am bitter from
throwing people
under the bus
the Trans
the Disabled
the Women
the Poor

I am working
to
do what I can
when I can
To remember
that it all counts

Probably not
int he ways I want
Or can see

Dang it

If God
could move
Things
in percievable
concrete
and faster
ways
we would
Appreciate it
quick

And quicker
If you please
Our minds
and hearts
and souls
are fainting for it

So we wait
Impatiently

Together

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


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”

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”

Breathe, a Prayer in the midst of everything

Breathe
I hear the Holy Spirit whisper
as I try to figure out
what it is I am feeling

Anxiety?
Excitment?
Grief?
Fear?

I am trying to catalogue

Natural Disasters
Wars

Politicians
Name-Calling
Which let’s be honest God,
the last two are the same thing
(usually)

Now this violence

Breathe, I hear God
And I think about
how my family,
where allergies and asthma runs prevalent
says joking
but not

that breathing is highly

Underrated

Breathe, says Jesus
laying down a pillow
Inviting me in
to take sanctuary
to rest

But I don’t have an answer
a solution
I haven’t even figure out
how to tell the story
of what is going on

In the universe
and how to relate to it
all

God nods
And I nod
and sigh
and my eyes begin to droop

And I realize
that God knows all of these things are important

Breathe in: God will see to the humans
Breathe out: It’s ok not to have the answers

Amen

Image of breaths in Blues and slight pinks and yellow “Breathe on me breath of God” “Vene Sancte Spiritus” “Bo Ruach Elohim” Entitled: The Promise of the Holy Spirit from https://boruachelohim.com/tag/breathe/

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”

#Advent Day 9 Longest Night Prayer

Nativity, 2022 (Ukraine) by Irenaeus Yurchuk.

Longest Night Prayer
Jesus,
Sweet Baby Jesus
Born in the midst of a collapsing empire
Hidden in plain sight from everything and everyone official


When different factions of the religion
were all claiming to be the “truer” one
Each saying if you don’t worship our way
You don’t belong to God.

You were born when a Messiah
Seemed to be around every corner
Lamps were left on at night and demagogues and dynamic cult leaders
Were followed at whim, because people needed hope

And the gulf between who was poor and who was rich
The distinction between who was citizen and who was not
The taste in one’s mouth when people called one another
Foreigner, Outsider, or Different was sour and full of hate

Violence was everywhere
Children, the Poor, The Elderly, The Lonely, the Sex Worker
were Ignored or Forgotten
Laws were passed against anyone deemed Unclean in any way (oh my Queer siblings!)

Jesus Christ, you were born in a time
When no one was receiving proper healthcare
So people banged down your door
for a bit of healing

And my heart aches
With the familiarity, you could be born today
Is this why you have to be born into today’s world?
Have we forgotten why we need you?

Sometimes I wonder if you haven’t returned
Because we haven’t learned enough?
Heretic thought I know
But I sit in the hate and terror and worry Jesus

Jesus Christ, we need you. A baby
A sneak king full of healing and mischevious teachings of Grace
Jesus we need someone who will sit in the dirt with the marginal
and embody the Peace so much that we will sit in the dirt with you.

Sweet baby Jesus, though I know we picture angels, shepherds, & magi
I think that a baby born in the war-torn dark
might be the truth
Help us to sit with that, in the shortest day and longest night I pray.

Amen.

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

Melt our Hearts Prayer

CW: war and violence

Good God who is glorious, generous
full of bounty, food and other good things

I feel too exhausted to pray
about pieces of metal
that explode into
messes of blood
tragedy
and annihlation

As the weeping of babies
across oceans
haunt my dreams at night
and the artwork of Banksy
decorates the walls,
the walls of hate

My words seem like a meager choice
the cry of Peace
while those with nothing are crying
in war

Who will share this burden?
The prophets cry

And the artists will paint
with their tears

Call your Congressperson
I pray

Do not tell the story of the downtrodden:
the Palestinian Christian,
the hungry senior citizen
the beaten Black Lives Matter Activist
the forgotten Trans Teen
the shot kindergartener
Do not tell the story after the tragedy has happened

God
I am so tired of praying
about pieces of metal
empty of bullets
emptying lives
emptying souls

Teach me another prayer
Teach me the prayer of
Peace
Because

Because
I am all too familiar with the vocabulary of hate
it contains words like
animals
revenge
and dehumanization

Reteach me the
languages of love
teach me the
me the lexicon of
humanization

Melt our hearts
our weapons
our souls
into another shape
I pray.
Amen.

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