Birthdate: November 19, 1942 URS: December 8, 2024
Mary Ann took Bayat in the Sufi Ruhaniat on Sept 1, 2016 (a New Moon with an annular eclipse). On Ramnavami of 2018, Mary Ann told me she had chosen for her name: Marisita Lila.
She observed that it combines Mary and Sita, and that MAR (which is also her initials for some period of her life) is “Ram” backwards. She also explained that “Marisita” describes her devotional relationship to Mary.
“My heart is so deeply & eternally connected with Mother Mary – that I carry Her name, that I am forever Her devoted servant…. it feels important that any new name – whatever it might be – also include Mary’s name in some way or form. The new Sufi name would then add something of significance, of importance in my life, to my being. Qualities, attributes (energies, vibrations) that I may be needing, so that I can be of greater service to all beings?”
I suggested the addition of the Sanskrit name Lila, in order to help lighten her heart and add more “playfulness” as a quality of her personality.
On June 21, 2018 (Solstice), Marisita Lila received her name in a simple ceremony.
Marisita Lila had a rich life that included the blessings of meeting illustrious teachers and mystics, such as Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi and Matthew Fox, and she studied numerous mystics including Teilhard de Chardin, and from Thomas Aquinas to Thomas Merton. Many years before, she had encountered the presence of Hazrat Inayat Khan and continued to feel a sense of deep connection with him, delighted to have found our spiritual community in his lineage.
I experienced Marisita Lila’s faith and devotion mostly as the gratitude she expressed from the day I met her, through every communication we shared, and in the cards she sent monthly and at holidays, and continuing into our final meeting, when she could speak only quietly.
She loved the Dances of Universal Peace and asked me to sing with her in her bed especially “O, Madre de Dios / ilumina mi camino / O, Madre de Dios / Maria Rosa Mistica.”
Marisita Lila had lived in Mexico for much of her life and was fluent in Spanish. A few years ago, she was able to visit Fazal Manzil in Suresnes, to her great delight.
She wrote, early in our time together:
“What I do know is that as I have lived my life ‘in the world’ – in various relationships including the joy of motherhood and being blessed to also be a grandmother. I have experienced much joy and much sorrow, but all of it has enriched my life and my growing compassion and I believe also my ability and my desire to transform pain and sorrow into gift for myself and for others. I’ve come to see the world as awesomely beautiful and I’ve come to experience – more and more – how very interconnected we all are with one another and with all of God’s amazing Creation. In everything I have been and I am blessed!”
From the beginning, until the last day I met with her, she repeated that what she most wanted was “to go home.”
I wrote to her, around the time of her bayat: “How beautiful, Mary Ann, to see your life’s path circling back around and ‘coming Home’ in this way! We can easily see that the rudder of your own Inner Guidance has been steering you through the winds and across the waves of life so effectively all along. Alhamdulillah!”
May her beloved Mother Mary, Inayat Khan, and all angels, saints and sages continue to guide her forever. Amen
– Shivadam
Marisita Lila was a loving presence in our community, a kind and deeply devoted practitioner of Love. She shared her love of her winged friends with photos of gratitude and admiration. She showed her love of her friends and community with gestures of birthday cards and remembrances and being in touch. Her faith was unshakable and her love of beauty shined through her luminous heart. Ya Salaamo Marisita Lila.