Faith & Fantasy: Forbidden Door Trilogy appeals to readers of wall ages
By Katherine Mroz, RSM
Correspondent
FLEMINGTON — C.S. Lewis… Frank L. Baum… J.R.R. Tolkien…
Mother Mary Joseph?
How in the world does a Carmelite nun fit in with literature’s fantasy giants? When she herself writes a secular work of delightful fantasy and high adventure.
And what prompted Mother Mary Joseph to write?
“I never intended to be a writer,” she said, “but I was a voracious reader growing up and I loved fantasy, particularly the tales of Edith Nesbit, ‘King Arthur and His Knights’ by Harold Pyle and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis.”
“One day I sat down to write a Christian work of fantasy about friendly dragons,” she said.
These stories eventually became “The Forbidden Door Trilogy.”
She noted it’s not so unusual for Carmelites to write spiritual books, but in creating a secular work she admitted she was coming from “a different age.”
The first book, “The Forbidden Door,” which won an award from the Evangelical Christian Book Publishers Association in 1986, was dedicated to her non-Catholic parents, who in their later years had experienced an inordinate fear of death. Her objective was to offer them a spiritual message of faith and consolation.
The fantasy begins when two children, David and Laura, go through the forbidden door into the kingdom of the dragons and learn about the Blue Road that leads to heaven.
Traveling the Blue Road is a recurring symbol in all the books and described in many transformative ways. The king tries to allay the fears of the children by explaining that death is simply a “passing” to new life. The children are intrigued by the Blue Road, and first see it on a beach as a “mass of ripples of blue light.”
They ask the king where the road leads. He replies, “Home to the Great One. All who have obeyed his laws come here in the end, whether torn and slain in battle, twisted with age, or felled by plague — all come.” At the poignant close of the trilogy, a blind boy, ready to go Home, “as if for the first time, sees something beautiful, the Blue Road.”
In addition to its masterful allegory, the trilogy is rich in imagery, adventure, imagination, humor and some very close calls.
Good triumphs over evil, the Dark Dragon becomes a good dragon and the good dragons, through their example, teach the children to practice the Christian virtues of selflessness, honor, courage and sacrifice. While emphasis is on the necessity of faith, the trilogy also offers a strong message of hope, which Mother Mary Joseph said “is so needed in the world today.”
Her worldly adventures growing up, as well as her otherworldly spiritual values as a Carmelite, became the inspiration for her writing.
Her father was a career diplomat, and the family traveled to exotic places, including the South American countries of Chile, Peru and Bolivia. She said it was very exciting to absorb the culture of each country.
“I even took a ride along the Nile,” she laughed.
During her childhood she was exposed to Catholicism, but her parents left it to her to make up her own mind about religion.
While studying Western religious at Vassar College, she made her decision.
“I was confused by the fact that many sects added this belief and discarded that and said this was right and that was wrong. I finally concluded that Catholicism was the most sensible religion because it took Jesus at his word,” she said.
“I had doubts,” she continued, “but one day while reading a spiritual book in the subway, I experienced a moment of fervor. I found Jesus.”
After becoming a Catholic, she decided to join the Carmelites, entering at Morristown. She later moved to the Flemington Carmel where she became Jeanne K. Norweb, a pen name she derived from her grandmothers Jeanne Norweb and Katharine Holden.
Mother Mary Joseph said that Jeanne K. Norweb has now put down her pen and is finished writing. Semi-retired at age 88, she keeps busy doing manual work, such as weaving and baking.
“More than anything, I am grateful for my vocation,” she said,” and my greatest joy is living the hermit spirit in a happy community.”
