An Appreciation of Mirari: The Way of the Marys
Mirari, Received by Mari Perron
Review by Celia Hales
Previously published in Miracles magazine (Jon Mundy, publisher).
In Mirari, Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus, returns to one of God’s faithful to herald the feminine face of God. Mari Perron announces in a dialogue with Mary a new beginning in which newly empowered feminine voices join with enlightened masculine voices to transform what we experience as “life.” This new life is brought about solely by the power of love in the hand of the one who rocks the cradle.
For too long women have been seen as victims in a world dominated by men. This is due to change, as the meek inherit the earth. Women are naturally seen more easily as the “meek,” for their role in the background and also their genes have given them a gentleness that men have not often manifested in their own makeup. So women now step forward to take their part in the world as the second coming of Christ is heralded. Jesus in A Course of Love first announced the comprehensive change; he said that the “way of Mary” was gradually coming into focus. He contrasted his own contribution, one of doing, saying that there would be a period of overlap now, but eventually all will walk the way of Mary.
In my understanding of Mirari (a word that means “wonder”), now women everywhere are the “Marys” of which Mary of Nazareth speaks. We must assume a leadership role in which we do not feed egos, for egos are the province of a time fading away, a time of unconsciousness. And egos have brought us to the desperate straits in which we find ourselves. Mary talks of male egos as “wild dogs,” but also says that there are plenty of female “wild dogs” as well. Mary would have us turn aside from feeding all egos, and presents this as the only way that we can hope to occupy a new world, to bring in the New (the “New” first heralded by Jesus in ACOL). She says that those individuals still possessing of ego need “training,” but that there are not enough trainers, will never be enough trainers. So we who are women, in assuming a new role, must cease feeding egos. We nurture others through what love has taught us because we are ideally suited for this new female face of God. We have known, of course, that the Divine is both male and female, for divinity is composed of both genders. But we have not lived that truth, and we are on the cusp of a new age in which this truth will be lived.
Mari Perron’s faith in God and her trust in both Jesus and Mary shine through everything she has taken down, typing on her computer. The words are absolutely beautiful, flowing and endearing. Often Mirari takes the form of a dialogue between Mary and Mari, a dialogue in which Mari unveils her insecurities with an honesty that is disarming and moving. She usually writes in solitude as the dawn is breaking, the sun seen through a window in her cabin, a cabin located out back of her home. The dawn becomes a motif throughout the book. It is a fitting metaphor for the dawn of new beginnings.
If read narrowly, Mirari would be perceived as a new feminist manifesto, but Mirari is saved from this secular fate by its divine truth that love will inform every new direction taken. We are to unite the masculine and the feminine in a union that will transform our world, a union in which women will be more evident than previously in all the years of our Earth. Women in this new feminism are seen as necessary catalysts for the transformation that must occur if we are to save our world.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 