The Jesuit Antiracism Sodality East
Consolation & Desolation, June 2021
“My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you.” – John 15:12
Desolation
An announcement was published about a Morning Reflection and One-Night Retreat for Black Women taking place in the Fall of 2020. The calls and emails came in expressing “concern” that this was “divisive” and “against us all being God’s children.” The emails were accompanied by scriptures to punctuate the “concern.” There have been men’s retreats, women’s retreats, and married couples retreats. Do retreats offered for other affinity groups spark the same concern as a retreat for Black women? No.
There seems to be a continuous narrative that Jesus and access to God must be packaged in a gaze that is comfortable for the majority in Catholic spaces. This can feel unsafe, less welcoming, and isolating, particularly in many of the spaces wherein you are the only one or one of a few. Is your love for me as a Black woman only given to me or accepted from me when my toned-down representative shows up? Is God only accessible to me if…?
Jesus commands us in John 15:12 and repeats again a little louder in John 15:17 for the people in the back.
Consolation
November 2020 came. At the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 and uncertainty about what was ahead on the horizon, a sold out retreat of Black women from all ages and backgrounds came. Taking up all the space, feeling welcomed and loved. These women were unaware of the calls and emails that were made out of “concern.” If they did not feel as if they belonged in other spaces, for 24 hours they belonged in this space. It was theirs. Looking around they saw a fully loving God reflected in the faces of 21 other Black women. No one needed them.
By the time this is published another sold out retreat will have concluded. Black women preparing for their return in November where they can be their full selves. We are covered and affirmed by John 15:12 and again in John 15:17. He said it twice in the same chapter. I think he was pretty serious.
This month’s reflection was provided by Lauren Morton, an associate of Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center in Atlanta, GA. If you would like to volunteer to provide next month’s reflection, please contact Sean Toole, SJ: stoole@jesuits.org.
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- Consolation & Desolation, September 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, August 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, July 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, June 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, May 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, April 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, March 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, January 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, February 2023
- Consolation & Desolation, December 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, November 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, October 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, September 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, August 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, July 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, June 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, May 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, April 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, March 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, February 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, January 2022
- Consolation & Desolation, December 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, November 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, October 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, September 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, August 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, July 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, June 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, May 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, April 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, March 2021
- Consolation & Desolation, February 2021
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