Reflection on Black History Month ~ Mildred Green

Mildred Green read this beautiful reflection as a tribute to the ancestors. It was taken from a booklet of prayer services called Sweet, Sweet Spirit, by Joseph A. Brown, S.J., PH.D. with Fernand Cheri, III, O.F.M.


Where we stand, the ground is holy
because we honor those whose tears watered the way,
because we remember those whose feet made a way out of no way.

Where we gather,
the air is filled with power
because we call to mind those who dreamed dreams of freedom
and saw visions of fulfillment,
who looked for a day when we would exist and be strong.

Wherever we look,
we see pain and suffering and despair and hopelessness,
and when we look again, we see hope and healing and promise..

When we look,
we see those who have gone before us.
We see those who stand beside us.
We see ourselves.

We let the pouring of the water remind us
that the tears of the ancestors nourished the ground
and made it fruitful,
and we are blessed in the remembering.

We let the pouring of the water remind us of some of our great mothers and fathers:

Harriet Tubman
Frederick Douglass
Malcolm X
Lorraine Hansberry
Booker T. Washington
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Medgar Evers
and the children of Birmingham: Addie May Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley

We remember the holy women of blood and faith, our ancestral mothers, and the words with which they blessed us:
"Walk together, children, don't you get weary."

We remember our fathers of faith, who marked the stony road and made it safe for us to journey, who told us:
"Keep a-inching along like a poor inchworm."

We remember the joy of the prophet who saw and sang in his vision:
How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of those who bring glad tidings.

Marked thus, in the sign of faith, and blessed thus in the spirit of the ancestors, it is time for us to depart, to complete the good work God has begun in us.

It is time for us to hear and heed the call once more.
Where our children are held captive by ignorance, violence and drugs,
we are called to bring them release;
where our elderly suffer in the hunger of neglect, loneliness and empty days,
we are called to sing jubilee and gratitude;
where women are abused and men are beaten down,
we are called to announce a day of deliverance;
to a world grown sick with sin,
we are called to bring a balm from Gilead and make the wounded whole.

To our sisters and brothers, our daughters and sons,
we are called to be hearts and hands, joy and hope, sojourners of truth, light to the world, a song in a weary land.

We are called to be free.
As we remember, let us rejoice and be glad.
Amen.