3 - Let it Be

Simon had a vision. If you are uncomfortable at the idea of visions, sorry, its just the way they talk about things. I can't say what it means. It is probably different for everyone. Some say it is like a dream, some say it is a kind of deep understanding, translated into pictures. It is a kind of spiritual reality at any rate. I just accept this way of talking, as I see no way around it. Perhaps it is easier for me, as a poet.

Simon was in Cambridge in around 1250, when the brothers had left the mountain and were looking for a way to live in Europe, where many of them had come from.  Mary offered him the scapula in a holy dream, the 'apron' that represents something about her motherhood. It is about her motherhood of Christ. A lot of religious groups took to wearing something like this later, but Simon was one of the first to find it. Its the top layer of the brown Carmelite habit.

The apron is for me sweetly grounding. Mary looks after the Christ who lives in us all. So she is everyone's mother. Some of us really need a spiritual mother. How many of our actual mothers are perfect? How many of us are perfect parents in our turn? Actually, she put her foot in it as well. There was no manual for being the mother of God. I remember that day she set off home and left him behind in the temple. It took her days to find him. And the other time she told everyone he was mad. She was so afraid for him, she tried to stop him being who he was. And yet, the church teaches she was without sin. She made mistakes, but did her best.

Simeon warned her that a sword would pierce her heart, and it did. She replied with the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary:

My souls glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. He has looked on his servant in her lowliness. All generations will call me blessed. God has done great things for me. His mercy will endure. Holy is His name.

We all have a spiritual mother, but the wearer of the scapular, the apron of Mary, has to pass on that mothering too. In some way you have to care for the baby in your own soul, and in the souls you meet. Don't disdain the washing up. The queen of heaven did it. No-one is above the menial tasks of loving. But more difficult and dangerous, the gradual and experimental letting go, letting be.

Tolkien used allegory throughout his work. I find the acceptance of the pain of humanity in parts of his work touchingly reminiscent of this acceptance. I think we all share this with Mary in the moment when we see the fragility and great promise of the other. We share motherhood spiritually when we dare to nourish and to revere the child in the other, in our 'neighbour' as well as in ourself.


'be' is a powerful action in the world: I love the words of the magnificat in the Beatles 'Let it Be'. There is a problem with links to the song but you can easily find 'Let it Be'. I hope you do. It's surprising!


1st January - Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God  


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