Characters
Characters
The House of New Bethany introduces the reader to three characters: Olivia, Sara, and Paul. Each represents openness to True Devotion to Mary Magdalene through the combined hearts of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. They are allegories for Aletheia, which is the unconcealment of this devotion in our existence through grace.
Olivia’s story follows the theme of the Prose. St. Joan and St. Thérèse transform her life in Alethic wonder as she follows them along the Trail of the Dogmatic Creed to the kingdom in the distance. Sara represents Aletheia itself as a mysterious sojourner to La Sainte-Baume, France. She becomes the light, allowing St. Mary Magdalene to emerge in the hearts and minds of the villagers. Sara’s story follows the theme of the Manuscript. Paul is a mystic who encounters St. Joan and St. Thérèse in a magical forest traveling along a mysterious trail. Paul’s story follows the general theme of The Dove and Rose. Olivia, Sara, and Paul reveal the “appearance of The House of New Bethany appearing.”
Synopsis of each character
The following synopses are found at the end of the introductions to each character, Olivia, Sara, and Paul.
Olivia
(Read the Olivia series)
Olivia’s story presents an opportunity for the reader to think. A purpose imbues the telling of Olivia; it has a teleological point. Olivia is a Catholic pedagogy, an approach to teaching the phenomenology of our experience with God through the Catholic faith, replete with dogmas, doctrines, and metaphysics.
Her story opens with a predetermined metaphysical and theological position. She is Catholic and devoted to St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. There is no attempt to create a historical context for her, beyond setting the stage for Olivia’s encounter with her “saintly sisters.” The foundation of Olivia’s story is Catholicism, metaphysics, and phenomenology. She experiences “Aletheia,” truth in the early Greek sense. Aletheia is truth in the sense of “unconcealment.” Olivia receives the gift of Aletheia through the poem she discovers in a bookstore. She must calibrate her gift's effects with the Church's teachings and metaphysics.
The story begins with Olivia absorbing the world's everydayness, which establishes the grounds for phenomenological wonder to come into her life. She experiences the world in the ordinary activities of her life. Astonishment reveals itself to Olivia in ordinary moments, such as going to an old bookstore and discovering a hidden book, more than through extraordinary exploits.
Olivia’s sense of meaninglessness in her routine life reveals an inauthenticity in her relationship to being. The problem is not the routine of her daily life, but the inauthenticity of that daily life that reveals itself in the routine. Everydayness is not the source of meaninglessness. It is “every-personness” that makes up her inauthenticity. Olivia finds herself caught up in thinking the way “they” think, the way society expects her to think. This is the way everyone thinks about their natural day-to-day activities. This is to be an “every-person.”
A phenomenon challenges Olivia’s inauthenticity and compels her to seek her authentic identity. First, she must understand the true values motivating her actions which, terrifyingly, are at odds with her cherished faith. She will need the help of others to find her way to an authentic relationship with being and enter the sacred friendships she desires.
To journey into a meaningful relationship with being, Olivia must face death. The old wineskin cannot contain the new wine. Access to authentic being in grace comes through the cross. The resurrection that follows opens her heart to God’s embrace and the friendship of the saints.
Sara
(Read the Sara series)
Sara is an allegorical figure. She guides us to true devotion to St. Mary Magdalene through a journey to Magdalene’s holy sites in southern France.
More than a fictional character, Sara is Aletheia, the unconcealment of truth in the early Greek sense. She represents the opening of being devoted to Mary Magdalene to the villagers who look up to her. They know something special embraces Sara, a hidden luminescence that reveals the gestalt of Mary Magdalene in France. She seeks an abiding relationship with Magdalene as a heavenly patroness, leading her to salvation through the Catholic Church. She also opens the existence of true devotion to Mary Magdalene for the villagers.
Sara is both a seeker and that which beckons us to seek.
Paul
(Read the Paul series)
Paul’s story is an encounter with the heavenly duo of St. Joan of Arc and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. These two saints are the guiding figures in The House of New Bethany. Whereas Olivia experiences Aletheia in a moment and Sara represents Aletheia itself, Paul experiences this opening to being as a phenomenon. Paul is the character most resembling the author of The House of New Bethany. St. Joan and St. Thérèse are phenomena in his life, leading him along the Trail of the Dogmatic Trail toward the Kingdom of Mystical France. Mary Magdalene is the gestalt of Mystical France. Thus, Paul is destined to encounter Sara on his journey.