I had to drive over the Trent Bridge the other day. I’d been for a Covid 19 test at the Boots site (it came back negative but I’d had a bit of a bad chest – shielding with a loved one means I’m forever alert for signs and symptoms!). Standing on the bridge, at the side of the road were a few people holding up banners saying ‘People not Profit’ and ‘No Going Back’. I later learned they were part of the Extinction Rebellion group. I couldn’t help but honk my horn in agreement, showing my solidarity with their steadfast determination to change the world for the better and save our precious planet. As I carried on driving home those words, No Going Back, stayed in my mind. What didn’t I want to go back to? Or rather, what did I want, going forward? I wasn’t sure at first.
The reality is that so many people have died from this awful pandemic. Families have been left bereft. The suffering has been felt through families apart from their loved ones. And in these difficult times, prayer for the dying has never been so important.
On a personal level, it’s been over 12 weeks now of lockdown and understandably there have been negatives. Not being able to visit my dad in hospital at the moment is really tough, though I know he’s well and being looked after. For folk not being able to see those they love in their hour of need is so hard. We as a human race have had to relinquish control of our past ‘normal’ making most of us feel very vulnerable. But as Christians and believers we can put our faith completely in whatever we believe in, – ‘I am surrendering all that I can do and all that I am into something greater – do with it what you will’, and I feel this can really help calm anxieties about the present and the future.
For a lot of people there has been a practical inconvenience. Can’t fly, can’t drive, can’t do all the things we are used to, we’ve come to a grinding halt! But the great consolation is that nature and wildlife continues as it has always done, even better if statistics are to be believed. The birds still fly, they still sing; louder, or is that my imagination? Perhaps they just aren’t drowned out by the continuous mighty roar of aircraft above. Or perhaps before lockdown I never stood still long enough to hear them properly… As Patsy Cline once sang, “Stop the world and let me off …”! Well this world has truly stopped and we are now standing in one place long enough to smell the roses!
Then we come to the more spiritual ‘inconvenience’. There’s now nowhere to rush off to when we need to get away from our thoughts and feelings; nothing materialistic to divert one’s attention. No shopping to make one feel uplifted, no drinks with a friend to have a good old moan! For me, being isolated at home has meant managing my inner self, attempting to nurture inner peace with inner practice. Please don’t imagine that I’ve turned into some kind of spiritual guru though: I do struggle! I’ve found doing the Rosary a really calming experience to the routine of lockdown and I now have no excuse for not praying; I have nowhere to rush off to. And there’s a nice sense of unity when you know someone else somewhere is also on the livestream, saying the rosary with you.
In my deeper thinking moments I feel that I’ve come to the realisation that the centre of the universe really is in one’s soul. This statement does sound rather self-indulgent and these thoughts often go as quickly as they come, but time in lockdown has offered me these thoughts and I do appreciate time to reflect on them.
For those who have great faith, one should be reminded that inner thoughts and reflection is not easy when the majority of our population are not used to thinking and feeling inwardly. Who wants to feel things we don’t want to feel, or think about things we’d rather push to the back of our minds and can easily do so when we always have to be somewhere else? For many people of religious and spiritual belief, inward reflection and prayer is a natural part of living, but I think it’s fair to say that for many other people it is a very difficult process. If people do not have their faith, then who do they turn to in dark moments? Are these the people we pray for?
But amongst all the negative elements of this pandemic we can find positives. Nature stills continues. Sounds and sensations are heightened. Walking with my grandoggy in the beautiful countryside surrounding where we live, one can’t help wondering if this enforced pause on everyday life is happening for a reason.
Kindness of strangers has been a revelation. This can only fair well for the future. It puts that trust in mankind; where one starts to doubt goodness in humanity, now we have been reminded that it is, as it always has been, still there. Isn’t that God doing his work? One could almost believe that all this has happened for a reason..
So, on thinking about those words on those banners ‘No going back’ another thought came to the forefront of my mind. The words Pope Leo XIII said to Mary Potter. This random phrase came into my mind: “Why go back? The doors of Rome are open to you”. Once again Mary Potter manages to pop into my mind as she often does, at the most unexpected moments. It can be a word, a picture, a painting, her face, her smile. And although I wasn’t thinking about Rome specifically, those words ‘why go back?” made me wonder about the here and now, the future and it’s new normal and if we will go back to the old ways, or embrace a new, calmer life in a world that in many ways has slowed down and changed for the better. Will we, like Mary Potter did, take a giant leap of faith and recognise that out of this awful pandemic, a new normal has emerged, one of appreciation for the world around us, the chance to slow down, take stock and enjoy the moment, the here and now?
Something I often ask myself when I’m faced with a decision, a quandary, a moment of uncertainty is: What would Mary Potter do? And so what do we think she would be saying and doing if she were here today? I think she’d be practical but personable; ever ready to respond to this desperate situation. I think she would use her no nonsense but compassionate approach to the situation: Get that big pan of soup on the go; get making those masks and cleaning everywhere. Wash your hands! Regular prayer, asking for God’s strength; great times of reflection but reassuring her Greater Company that ‘this too will pass’.
Most of all, at the end of the day, I’d like to imagine that we would find Venerable Mary Potter, of an evening, taking a solitary stroll around the garden, admiring the beauty of a rose or a robin or a nice row of vegetables and thanking God, thanking Our Lady and praising them for the wonderful world she lives in, never doubtful of her faith but most certain that it is God’s will, even in lockdown.
Teresa Pacey-Devlin
Secretary Administrator – Mary Potter Heritage Centre, Nottingham