Mariette in Ecstasy, Post 1

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 4^th; Part 2 on August 11^th, and Part 3 on August 18^th. 

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.

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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.

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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)