Palm Sunday

Cole Arthur Riley explains how this book came to be:

I was twenty-three when I walked into an Episcopal church with an overwhelming desire to die. The service began with a hymn. Two dozen elderly choir members hovered above us from the loft, singing words I couldn’t make out, which has its own way of making you feel alone. But then all around me people began to speak the liturgy aloud. Blessed be God. And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever. ...

... Ritual, when coupled with beauty, makes for a very adequate mooring. It won’t carry you to shore, but it will keep you close enough that hope can swim out to visit you regularly. ...

... The Sunday after George Floyd’s murder was Pentecost Sunday. While still in the height of the pandemic, I logged into an Episcopal church service online and waited for some manner of belief to return to me. I lay in the same position I had been for days prior, a cluster of grapes and a bag of hot Cheetos on the pillow next to me. And I waited, knowing what I’ve always known: that there are days when it is particularly difficult to pray words written by a white man. ...

And so I began Black Liturgies. Mostly out of rage. I cannot say how much of my rage was holy and how much was hatred, but I hope it contained more of the former. I was desperate for a liturgical space that could center Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body unapologetically. ...

The resulting book is hardcover, bound like a Book of Common Prayer.

It contains prayer sequences -- wisdom from elders living and dead, petitions, breath exercises -- for the emotions she found appropriate and needed in the COVID summer after George Floyd's cinematically recorded murder by cop. It also includes prayers for religious seasons.

I'm not the intended audience, but I get a lot out of dipping in. Here's a seasonal taste:

PALM SUNDAY

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; As it is written:
‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ —John 12:14–15 (NRSVA)

There is miracle in belonging to a God who rejects the image of a gloried hero and instead comes to us on a donkey, centering the plight of those who suffer.

Liberation begins with this: Do not be afraid....

Blessed be.