What is sacred? What qualities characterize an object or person as sacred? These are the kind of questions that Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead are asking of us as readers. In reading these novels, I was compelled to ask theological questions about the many ways in which God may move in the reality of the human experience. In this reflection over these two books, I will draw from the idea that these books are speaking not only of the religious experiences of particular characters, but how these characters are experiencing God in the “sacred ordinary” act of sacramental writing within their historical context.
Sacraments are visible practices that are meant to point to an invisible and internal work of divine grace. In his book, Subversive Spirituality, Eugene Peterson writes, “We live on holy ground. We inhabit sacred space. This holy ground is subject to incredible violations. This sacred space suffers constant sacrilege. But no matter. The holiness is there, the sacredness is…show more content… John Aimes III, the protagonist, uses his writings as a sacrament of remembrance. On page 23, John Aimes III writes his childhood memory of him and his friends baptising a few cats that they owned. although the baptism of his cat may seem unholy to the common person, he concludes that the blessing is not in the baptism itself, but rather in the pure intention of blessing. He says, “There is a reality in blessing… It doesn’t enhance sacredness, but acknowledges it, and there is a power in that.” This also rings true for him in regards to his writing; “For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn’t writing prayers… You feel you are with someone.” John Aimes III sees his writing as a spiritual act that is far beyond his verbal prayers. He regards his actions, whether writing or baptising animals, as sacred by visibly acknowledging the sacredness that is already invisibly present in the