This
and a series of posts will feature the book club’s read of Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy. Ron Hansen is a currently living American author of several novels. He is Roman Catholic, and even a deacon in
the Church. Not all of his novels have
Catholic themes, but Mariette is a
very Catholic novel. Since the novel
divides into sections called “Parts,” I will not call my various posts “Parts”
as my habit, but will call them “Posts” to avoid confusion.
Introduction
This
is the story of Mariette Baptiste, a young postulate who enters the convent of
a religious (fictitious) order called The Sisters of the Crucifixion. The convent where the novel is set is in
upstate New York, and the action follows the liturgical calendar. In the course of several months Mariette has
what appears to be extreme religious experiences including a stigmata. The convent priest and the mother superior
are obligated to investigate these experiences to establish whether they are
true, imaginary, or outright fraud.
During the course of time, the sisters at the convent take sides, either
in support of Mariette or believing the experiences to be false.
The
novel divides into three parts, so we’ll set up a reading schedule of one week
for each part. The three parts do not
divide equally. Each successive part is
a little longer than the previous. This
will allow us to get acclimated to the style.
It’s very literary, with some small time shifts, and very poetic.
This
week was the week to start reading.
Discussion of Part 1 will begin on Sunday, August 4th; Part 2
on August 11th, and Part 3 on August 18th.
I
have been reading ahead, so I can moderate the discussion. This is a mesmerizing novel, and I assure you
the reader will get spiritual blessings from it. Ron Hansen is not undermining the faith in
any way. I believe he is building
it. I say that without knowing the
ending yet.
###
Part
1
Summary
The
day of the new postulant’s entrance into the religious order of the Sisters of
the Crucifixion, the chapter in Upstate New York. It is August 15, 1906, the Feast of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
Mariette Baptiste, the postulant, is in her mother’s wedding dress,
since the ceremony is a spiritual wedding to Christ. Part 1 constitutes the entire first day (or
perhaps it’s two, I’m not exactly sure) and we see Mariette as she learns about
the convent, the rhythm of life there, the rules and norms of the place. She meets many of the Sisters and begins to
build relationships.
As
it turns out Prioress, Mother Celine, is her older sister, twenty years
older. They have a conversation over
their father, and how their father did not think Mariette suited for the
convent. Mother Celine has revealed that
their father secretly sent her a letter stating that Mariette has been subject
to “trances, hallucinations, unnatural piety, great extremes of temperament,
and, as he put it, inner wrenchings.”
Mariette does not deny this when asked, and her sister tells her to not
be exceptional.
Mariette
meets with the other young novices, and they talk as young ladies would do of
boys, gossip, life at the convent, and of the things that irritate. Mariette joins in but is noticeably
different. She goes on to meet with the
convent priest, Pere Marriott, and she confides in him that she since thirteen
she has had “experiences,” conversations with Jesus. Marriott shrugs it off that it is common in
young religious women and that he has seen it before. He gives her pen and paper and allows her to
secretly write to him of her experiences.
At the close of Part 1, she has written a lengthy note explaining how
Jesus has told her she find herself “afflicted and empty and tempted.” She will find herself punished, humbled,
abandoned, and “greatly confused.” It is
not clear if she submitted this letter to Marriott or kept it in her
possession.
For
those starting out, a note. There will
be an inquest to Mariette's "ecstasies" and the snippets of
conversation set off with a "dash" is an inserted part of the inquest
that occurs months later. For instance
on page 16 we get this:
—
Was
she in ecstasy, Sister Agnes?
—
You ask too much of a simple woman.
—
Would you please describe what you saw?
The
person conducting the inquest is Pere Marriott.
Who he is questioning is sometimes not clear. In this case he actually addresses Sister
Agnes, but it's not always so. It
doesn't seem to matter all that much, though.
###
Excerpts:
And
then when the High Mass is done, the old priest turns and tentatively eases
himself down to the railing again in order to say to the church, "Who asks
to be received into the grace and blessings of the religious life as handmaid
of the Lord?"
She
feels their stares like heat. The
postulant stands up from her white-flowered prie-dieu and says, "Mariette
Baptiste." (p.14)
She
smiles at Mariette hesitantly as the Angelus bell slowly rings. Sister Hermance turns in the general
direction of the high altar and gets to her knees and prays, "The angel of
the Lord declared unto Mary."
"And
she conceived of the Holy Ghost."
And
then an Ave Maria is said. (p.24)a is said. (p.24)
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