Voyager: Adoration

Thinking about Voyager as a Purgatorial novel, while appropriate to Lent, also helps me to bring together the observations I've been making to myself as I read the novel.  While in Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, there are references to Claire's Catholicism, they are generally dismissive.  Jamie's Catholicism is either part of his naiveté and innocence, or heavily flavored by Celtic paganism.  Jamie's Catholicism becomes somewhat modulated as be loses his innocence, and it always retains that Celtic pagan element.  Claire's Catholicism never becomes anything more than a very casual, occasional marker of her character.  And yet, in Voyager, she engages in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which is one of the more profoundly--perhaps weirdly, certainly mystical--spiritual practices that appear in the novels. It is also one of the most quintessential Catholic spiritual practices in the novels or outside of them, since it is based on theology that the Eucharist is, indeed, the actual, literal, Body of Christ.

Adoration is present in at least two Outlander novels--and I think in all three of the first ones:  Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager.  In Outlander, Claire is introduced to the practice as she hopes for Jamie's healing after profound physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.  The account of Adoration is a rather remarkable one--and certainly rings true for me as someone who has engaged in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  It helps Claire find peace, and there is the hint of an answer to her prayers for Jamie in the stillness of the chapel.

It was a disappointment that there was never more than the hint of religious feeling in Claire following the experience of Adoration.  I was excited when she seemed moved, and thought that there might be some subtle entry of religious feeling--or understanding for Jamie's religious feeling.  Rather, the novels seem to suggest that Claire's personality, ambition, modernism (in the bad sense), upbringing, or carnality are completely incompatible with Christian belief.  Frequently, instead of having the spouses seek perfection together, love for Claire puts Jamie at odds with God (because his love for her is greater than anything--not an uncommon sentiment, and very human) ...except at those moments when his love for her will redeem him, as when he tells Claire at the end of Dragonfly that his love for her will stand as his account of himself before God.

Be that as it may, Adoration appears in Voyager as Claire's escape from Frank--a place she finds peace, but not a place where she goes to pray, per se:

I sat there without moving, watching the flickering glow of the candle flames in the gold surface of the monstrance, until the soft footsteps of the next adorer came down the aisle behind me, ending in the heavy creak of genuflection. They came once each hour, day and night. The Blessed Sacrament was never left alone. (40)

Beyond the peace and stillness, and occasional acknowledgment of a Presence, I wonder what role Adoration has in the Outlander novels.  It seems privileged because of how prominent the scenes of Adoration are--it is impossible to ignore them completely.  They stand out from the narrative as something different.  (Which is as it should be...)  On the other hand, they fail to become thematic (even if, as I propose, Voyager is convincingly Purgatorial).  But neither do they become blended with the pagan forms of spirituality.  In this, at least, Catholicism--Catholic Christianity--is exceptional.

Gabaldon, Diana (2004-10-26). Voyager (Outlander) (p. 40). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition