Earlier this year, I finished reading God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland, and I highly recommend it. This engaging memoir tells the story of how, in 2018, Cleveland went on an extensive walking pilgrimage across the Auvergne region in France to see eighteen Black Madonnas. She gave nicknames to some of them that she visited, including Our Lady of Mud, Mother of All Bling, and Our Lady of the Side-Eye. Some of her chapter titles are also names she fashioned for the Sacred Black Feminine, including She Who Cherishes Our Hot Mess, She Who Loves by Letting Go,...
Last updated: September 9, 2023 We are certainly living in some difficult and, for some of us, dangerous times – facing weather disasters caused by climate change, racial violence, economic catastrophe, and a mismanaged viral pandemic. The recent protests, in support of Black Lives Matter, against structural racism and anti-African American violence have erupted across the pages of newspapers, television screens, and social media. I didn’t go to any of the protests, but I do stand with the nonviolent protesters who are demanding racial justice. It’s been a little over two months since the protests were sparked by the excruciating...
Many religious traditions include beads as a part of their prayers and rituals because they help keep track, in an automatic way, of how many repetitions of prayers have been said. Islamic prayer beads, called misbaha, tasbih, or sibha, usually have 99 beads, corresponding to the number of Names of God in Arabic with 2 smaller beads in between each set of 33. The prayers recited include the Subhan Allah (Glory be to God,) the Al-hamdu lilah (Praise be to God) and the Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest.) Members of the Sikh faith use 108 mala beads when reciting...
