A trans prayer of divine understanding
by M Jade Kaiser
Creative Spirit,
Holy Momentum,
Ever Transitioning One,
Do you hold the prayers of trans people close,
like the embrace of someone who understands –
a source of comfort or hope?
We share this joy – you and us:
Taking on new forms
that life might thrive.
Shedding what no longer fits;
or never did.
Struggles, we share, too:
Religious beliefs that confine being and becoming.
Enduring acts of violence
born from fear and fueled by power.
Though even we endure too much, too long,
how burdensome is your lot…
Centuries pass and still,
so few who claim to love you
believe you are who you say you are –
calling you an excuse for bigotry,
when you are a river of Love.
Do all the theologies of hate,
and songs of Sunday apathy,
land on your ears like a deadname –
something given to you
that you never asked for
and just won’t go away?
Do you wince
each time a prayer ascends to “Him” –
because more than anything,
you know what that means to do
is distance you from the likes of “Her” or “Them?”
When you stretch out your arms
as the embrace of a gentle man,
or kick out your feet
as the dance of a woman,
or run wild in open fields
through every gender-less,
or gender-abundant,
or nonbinary kiddo
loving their flesh,
do you take delight in every fit,
finding a spot of home
in every body?
The glory of your Multiplicity cannot be hidden away.
We may be a long way from safety yet,
but your mercies are new every morning
and with each day dawns new possibilities
of Sacred Transition
into a world more fitting for everyone.
May your blessing be upon all your trans beloveds.
Take pleasure in us, your stunning incarnations.
And as we care for our each other,
may the god we practice be a comfort and a strength.
This prayer was created by enfleshed.