Loving God, as we celebrate Black History Month 2021, 22-year-old inaugural poet Amanda Gorman helps us become more conscious of our obligation to step into our past in order to redeem our future.
We pray in gratitude that our African American ancestors did not lose sight in their spiritual center even as they experienced systematic oppression. People like:
Jenna Lee who became the first authorized woman preacher in the African American Methodist Church;
Rebecca Cox, itinerant preacher who founded the first Black Shaker community;
And Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American woman to address the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1988.
Gracious God, we pray for those African Americans who enlivened our hearts with song. People like:
Sam Cooke, “A Change is Gonna Come;”
Mary Wilson, founding member of the Supremes—may she rest in peace;
Kendrick Lamar who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for music.
And Marvin Gaye, who asked the question 50 years ago, “What’s Going On?” which still hasn’t been answered today.
Merciful God, help us embody the faith, courage, and love of those who have led us to this moment:
May we have faith to trust that we can become an anti-racist society;
May we have the courage to “step out of the shade and aflame and unafraid;”
And may we make love a spiritual practice until, in the words of Amanda Gorman, we can merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.—AMEN.
(“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman)
