Brontë, Pascal and Lent. Interesting Combo, Right?

Brontë, Pascal, and Lent. Interesting Combo, Right?

When I was in high school, I had a wonderful teacher introduce me to the Brontë sisters. The first book was by Emily. It was called Wuthering Heights. To a little girl who grew up in the foothills of the South, this was just about the most wonderful happening ever. I read about the moors, the wind, and the untamed land. I read about Cathy, Heathcliff, and Linton and their sordid yet painful love triangle. The world was a bigger and more varied place because of this book. Also, this book brought something else to the table. A woman in the 1800s writing a very dark and romantic book? She was probably seen as the most eccentric woman in the land! https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte

The The Brontë sisters were not only authors. They were also poets. Their poetry and writing was steeped in their love for England and their Love for God.

After the world of Wuthering Heights was opened, I had to read more. Hence, the next book was by Charlotte Brontë. It was called Jane Eyre. Jane had such a tragic childhood, she lost her parents. She lived with her cruel aunt and her spoiled rotten children. After she was deemed “wicked” by her family, she was sent to a children’s home where religion and cruelty were on the menu daily. Reading that book was like walking into a world where you just were not quite sure what would happen next. A burning wedding dress walking down the hall in the middle of the night? Check. Strange noises in a very creepy house? You got it. The enigmatic Mr. Rochester, whom Jane can’t quite figure out? It’s there. I won’t give away too much of the story, but needless to say, it is a page turner. https://victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/brontbio.html

When it was brought to my attention that three of the sisters had written and published books, I had to do more research.

Anne Brontë wrote the most scandalous novel of them all. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. What was contained in this book you might ask? Well, it is quite the scandal indeed. It is about a widow who has moved to Wildfell Hall with a small child and a servant in tow. A young man named Gilbert Markham befriends her despite the village’s unkind gossip about the reclusive woman. In this book, our heroine sells her artwork to support her family. I won’t ruin the entire book for you but there is a twist in the book that makes Brontë’s work quite ahead of its time. I promise, you won’t regret reading this book at all.   https://www.annebronte.org/

The Brontë sisters, particularly Anne’s work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has been praised for a feminist work when females were not typically supporting themselves on their own.

What do the Brontë sisters’ books have to do with our Lent and faith journey? There are actually several parallels.

The Brontë sister’s father was a clergyman in a small village in the moors of England. As you can deduce, it was probably very, very boring. The young children had to use their imaginations to craft tales and stories to keep them occupied. Today, when I was looking at “today in history,” the very cool and interesting fact was that on this day, March 4 Charlotte declined a young reverend named Henry Nussey’s hand in marriage. In her reply, she explained that he would find her “romantic and eccentric” and not practical enough to be a clergyman’s wife. What a way to refuse a proposal.

The Brontë sisters were an inspiration of imagination that God gifted us through his creation of our world.

Each tale that these young women weaved showed the gift that God so greatly shared with us. Imagination. In Genesis 1:1-2, the Bible tells us that: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. God Created. He imagined and brought this beautiful place we call home to life. The night, the day, the water, the sky, the animals, the flora, the fauna. That is quite an imagination that came to fruition.  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NIV

Do you imagine? Do you dare to dream? One of the reasons this column is called Positive Pensées is simply because the word Pensée means thoughts in French.

a reflection on the radical christian feminism of charlotte brontë, on the bicentennial of her birth

In the 1600s Blaise Pascal started writing his Pensées, his thoughts on religion. Pascal felt so strongly about the importance of thoughts that he wrote: “Man’s greatness is in his power of thought.” Pascal understood what God started at the Genesis of the world. Dream, imagine, create and inspire. Everyone doesn’t have to write a book or compose a piece of music. But rather, what has God gifted you to create in your talents, and that indeed is a wonderful gift. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

During Lent, I hope that in our practice we will be mindful of our thoughts and how they define us. Perhaps through each passing day as Easter approaches, we can be like the Brontë sisters and write to our hearts content. Or we can emulate Blaise Pascal and really focus on the quality of our thoughts. I leave you all with a quote from Pope Francis: “Lent comes providentially, to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.” https://www.southernliving.com/culture/lent-quotes-bible-verses