We can learn much from a true appreciation of the feminine.
There can’t be many people who can claim to have shared a vol-au-vent with a saint, but if Brother Michael Strode is canonised (as those ad- vocating for his cause hope he will be) I may be the first. Br Michael was a doctor, and the founder of the Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust (HCPT, formerly the Handicapped Children’s Pilgrimage Trust), and a friend of my father-in-law, also a doctor.
My father-in-law accompanied Michael on annual pilgrimages to Lourdes, bringing with him his five sons, the youngest of whom I later married. I met Michael at my mother-in-law’s funeral in 2018. He was 95 when I spotted him across the room; physically spent in every way, but had an extraordinary serenity about him. I crouched beside his wheelchair and introduced myself. He looked up at me and smiled the kind of smile which revealed Christ in him.
But how did Christ take root? There is only one way, and that is for us to provide the space for Him to do so, just as Our Lady provided space for him in her womb. That it is Mary’s role to bring us to her son is something that was well understood by Michael. Of particular interest to me was the significance of the fem-inine in Michael’s life; a beacon of light pointing to the forgotten importance of the mother.
It is that space, that frame of reference, that question, which is the lost feminine element essential for meaning, yet so lacking today. Without a question, there is no answer. Love can fill a need, but the need has to come first. The right balance of masculine and feminine is expressed in the story of the wedding at Cana, a story which had great significance in Michael’s life. Here Mary, the Ark of the Covenant, whose womb became the point of incarn- ation for God himself, now opens the space for Jesus to begin his ministry.
Mary knows that He is the answer to the question posed by the human condition and tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). We live in a world full of bad answers to questions that nobody asked. We no longer ask why we should do something; we just do it because we can, and then live with the inevitable chaos. Mary gives birth to the only answer capable of bringing order. The answer is truth itself.
Perhaps Michael recognised the import-ance of the lifegiving feminine because, just as Constantine and St Augustine before him, it was his mother (herself a convert) who was the greatest influence on him being received into the Church.
His is a story all about Our Lady and how she leads us to her son. It was the following quote from the Candlemas liturgy that played a crucial part in his decision to bring handicapped children to Lourdes and establish HCPT: “Embrace Mary, for she, who is the very gate of heaven, bringeth to thee the glorious king of the new light.”
“It is not within our power,” he said, “to bring these children to heaven, but we can lead them to Mary … confident that she will take them, and unite them to Jesus.”
Michael’s deep devotion to Our Lady shines through his diaries, which are expounded by John Wolff in Who are you looking for? – An introduction to the life and spirituality of Brother Michael Strode. He recognised that she was the perfect disciple, modelling for each one of us the path to sainthood. Michael as an agnostic young medical student questioned, listened to the answer, trusted and remained constant throughout his life, even to the foot of the Cross, just as Mary had done. It is this relinquishing of the will that is the mark of a saint.
When we read the lives of the saints we are presented with a wonderfully eclectic bunch of misfits – as varied in temperament as our human nature allows but united by the great cry of “Thy will be done”.
If Michael one day becomes St Michael Strode, not only will I be able to dine out on the vol-au-vent anecdote, but it will be a much-needed nod to the importance of lost femininity in our world today.
As some participants at the Synod on Synodality wait for the movement of the Holy Spirit to point them towards women priests like some bizarre table turning event – “Hang on … I’m getting something…” – they might wish to contemplate the power of the feminine as exemplified in Mary instead of taking their lead from a world that celebrates women only when they emulate men.
Only a deep misunderstanding of true femininity could lead to a call for women’s ordination. Brother Michael Strode prayed that “Mary will bring us together in love”. As the cause for his canonisation builds, we can simply pray that she has done so.
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