By Mary Ann Poust | Catholic New York | February 6, 2014
NEW YORK - The African-American family-its challenges and its joys-was the focus of celebration and of prayer at the annual Black History Month Mass on Sunday, February 2, in St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The Mass, organized by the archdiocesan Office of Black Ministry for the start of Black History Month in February, also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the National Day of Prayer for the African-American and African Family.
"That's 25 years of coming together to place our African-American and African families in the hands of a good and gracious God," said Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis, Tenn., the principal celebrant, in his homily at the Feb. 2 Mass.
"Twenty-five years of not forgetting who we are, and whose we are, at a time when we seem to place more focus on the weakening of family life rather than on its authenticity, its beauty, its strength," he said.
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| Fr. James Goode, OFM, distributing communion during the Mass at St. Patrick's |
"Twenty-five years of proclaiming the gift of life through parents, through guardians, through grandparents, through relatives and friends," he said. All of that takes "a lot of love, and praying; a lot of hope and trust, and praying; a lot of witnessing, and praying," the bishop said.
Bishop Steib, who was greeted with applause when he stepped up to deliver his homily, was principal celebrant at the invitation of Brother Tyrone A. Davis, C.F.C, executive director of the Office of Black Ministry, and the O.B.M. commissioners.
Brother Tyrone, in remarks thanking the bishop and other celebrants and participants at the end of Mass, said the day was a time for "celebrating the call to ministry."
Among those he cited were St. Charles Borromeo parish in Harlem, which recently marked its 125th anniversary, and the National Day of Prayer's 25th anniversary.
Brother Tyrone then led the congregation in reciting the prayer composed by Father Jim Goode, O.F.M., founder of the National Day of Prayer.
Father Goode, a member of the Manhattan-based Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception, is also pastoral director of Solid Ground Franciscan Ministry, an evangelization ministry with African-American families.
Speaking with CNY after the Mass, he told CNY that he never dreamed the National Day of Prayer would have endured for a quarter of a century.
Its beginning stemmed from a national conference Father Goode attended for black Catholic leaders in Atlanta, when talk turned to all of the problems faced by families and attempts to address them. He said he stood up at that meeting and suggested a national day to pray for families, a day to "come to the altar of God and lift ourselves up, and ask the people to be a part of it."
He said the proposal was enthusiastically accepted that first time, and has grown in the years since. "It's taken on a life of its own," he said.
Father Goode said he is especially proud that the prayer day grew from a meeting of black Catholics. "It's something we did on our own. It's not something we took over from someone else," he said.
He pointed out that Redemptorist Father Ray Culaba, the same graphic artist who designed the first one 25 years ago, designed the anniversary brochure.
This year, the prayer day calls on families to attend Mass as a family and pray together, to share a meal together and tell their family story, to set aside time to read the family Bible, to work together to prepare and deliver a meal to a family in need, and to join in solidarity and pray for the needs of families in Africa.
"Everybody's welcome to come to the banquet table," Father Goode said.
The Charles Barbour/Dolores Jefferson Memorial Combined Choir from various parishes and schools in the archdiocese, the Male Chorus of St. Charles Borromeo parish and the Choir of St. Joseph Church in Spring Valley provided music at the Mass.
The OBM Imani Dance Ensemble and the St. Charles Dance Ministry, both under direction of Nina Klyvert-Lawson, presented liturgical dance in the opening procession and at various points in the celebration. "I was very proud of the young people in the dance group," Brother Tyrone said later. "It was not performance, but ministry to enhance the worship."
