Permission to be a Poem!

Last week I attended a Theology of the Body course called “Poets for the Kingdom: the Sacramental Stories of Lewis and Tolkien”. Our teacher, Bill Donaghy, shared with us his passion and extensive knowledge of the lives and writings of Protestant C.S. Lewis and Catholic J.R.R. Tolkien, brothers and friends in Christ, who accompanied and encouraged one another in their shared mission to save the world through beauty. Under Bill’s fatherly tenderness and childlike joy, we explored themes of the achy longing and nostalgia we have for Home, male and female
complementarity, and the redemption of eros – our upward inclination towards the True, Good, and Beautiful. It was a very inspiring week! The grace that I received can be summed up in this one word: permission!

~Permission to love what I love!

~Permission – and a holy commandment – to become a little child: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

~Permission – and a holy commandment – to “notice how the flowers grow.” (Luke 12:27) To get low enough to notice the little violet in all its sweet, humble splendor.

~Permission to linger and tarry, to be, to rest, to enjoy true and nourishing leisure, instead of pulling out my phone.

~Permission to love the normal things of life: to be present to peeling the potatoes, to the beauty of stars shimmering in the night sky, to the song that brings tears to my throat. “. . . a man will learn far more about (the sky) by lying on his back in a field, and merely looking at the sky, than by reading all the libraries even of the most learned and valuable . . .” (G.K. Chesterton)

~Permission and joyous exhortation to be apostles of wonder and lovers of the normal!

~Permission to be in love! “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” (G.K. Chesterton)

~Permission to be a poem! To be the Song of Songs! St. Paul tells us, “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10). The original Hebrew reads: “For we are his poem.” We are God’s poem! “Your life is meant to express spiritual poetry. You are a poem for God. There is a poetry of the will, of the heart, of the spirit, of the soul. Your whole life must sing this poetry.” (Mother Mary Francis)

~Permission to sing, to dance, to be colorful! Permission to be the unique poem we are! “The glory of God is man fully alive!” (St. Irenaeus)

Throughout our head and heart immersion course, Bill quoted G.K. Chesterton:

"The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote… He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same element in every age. Yet each generation seeks its saint by instinct; and he is not what the people want, but rather what the people need."

This quote became a theme for the retreat. We don’t need Joan of Arc at this time. If we did, she’d be alive on the earth now. We need you. The world needs each of us. We can ask ourselves: what does the world neglect at this time that God has given me to exaggerate?

I made a little list for myself:
- Presence; instead of screen time
- Listening; instead of adding to the noise
- being attentive; “Attention is the beginning of devotion” (Mary Oliver, modern poet). “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” (Simone Weil, French philosopher and mystic).
- mono-tasking – “when you’re eating an orange, eat an orange” ; in a world that is hooked on multi-tasking
- being with someone in pain; instead of running away or trying to fix it
- true authentic femininity; instead of masculinized or neutralized
- good conversation; a dying art
- letter writing; a dying art
- silence; in a noisy and distracted world
- stillness; in a world that prizes busyness
- tarrying; in a world that values efficiency and productivity
- the other; in a world that seeks self
- tenderness; in a world that longs for it
- loving being little; in a world that wants to be big
- the Bridegroom; in a world that knows Him not
- consoling the Heart of Christ; “I looked for some to take pity, and there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." (Psalm 69:20)

What is your list? How did God fashion and nurture your particular heart to exaggerate what the world is neglecting? How are you called to be the unique poem, to sing the unique song of your heart with our Bridegroom? This offering of yourself is the beauty that will save the world through Jesus Christ! Let us go then to be apostles of wonder and lovers of the normal in our beloved, beautiful lives! Mama Mary, lead the way! Amen!

Marian West, Copyright 2025