Revelations of Divine Love

by Julian of Norwich

  And the more clearly the soul sees this blessed face through grace and love, the more it longs to see it fully. For although our Lord God lives in us and is here with us, embracing and enfolding us completely for tender love, so that he can never leave us, and is nearer to us than tongue can tell or heart can think, yet our lamentation and weeping and longing can never stop till we see his blessed face clearly; for in that precious, blissful sight, no good can fail and no ill can dwell.

  And in this I saw cause for mirth and cause for lamentation: cause for mirth because the Lord our Maker is so near us and within us, and we in him, through the sure protection of his great goodness; cause for lamentation because our spiritual eyes are so blind, and we are so weighed down by our mortal flesh and the darkness of sin that we cannot see our Lord God’s fair, blessed face clearly. No, and because of this darkness we can hardly believe and credit his great love, our sure protection; and that is why I say we can never stop lamenting and weeping. This weeping does not only mean tears pouring from our bodily eyes, but also has a more spiritual meaning; for the natural desire of our soul is so great and so immeasurable that if we were given all the noble things which God made in heaven and earth to please and to comfort us and we did not see the fair, blessed face of God himself, we still should not stop our lamenting and spiritual weeping, that is to say our painful longing, until we see the fair, blessed face of our Maker. And if we were suffering all the pain that heart can think or tongue may tell, if we could at that moment see his fair, blessed face, all this pain would not hurt us. So that blessed sight is the end of all manner of pain to the loving soul, and the fulfilment of all manner of joy and bliss. And God showed this in the great and marvellous words where he said, ‘It is I who am highest; it is I who am lowest; it is I who am all.’65

  We need to have three kinds of knowledge: the first is to know our Lord God; the second is to know ourselves, what we are through him in nature and grace; the third is to know humbly what we ourselves are where our sin and weakness are concerned. And, as I understand it, the entire showing was made for these three.

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  How these revelations were shown in three ways; and two spiritual sicknesses which God wants us to cure, remembering his Passion, and knowing also that he is all love; for he wants us to enjoy security and pleasure in love, not to be foolishly depressed by our past sins.

  All the blessed teaching of our Lord God was shown in three ways: that is to say, by bodily sight, by words formed in my understanding and by spiritual sight. I have described what I saw with bodily sight as truly as I can; and I have said the words exactly as our Lord revealed them to me; but so far as the spiritual sight is concerned, I have said something about it, but I could never recount it all, and so I am moved to say more, if God will give me grace.

  God showed that we suffer from two kinds of sickness: one of them is impatience or sloth, because we find our trouble and suffering a heavy burden to bear, and the other is despair, or doubtful fear,66 as I shall explain later. He showed sin in general, including all its aspects, but he only showed these two in particular. And these two are the ones which most trouble and torment us, according to what our Lord showed me, and the ones he wants us to reform. I am talking of those men and women who for the love of God hate sin and are anxious to do God’s will: through our spiritual blindness and the heavy burden of our bodies, these are the sins we are most inclined to commit, so it is God’s will that they should be recognized and then we shall reject them as we do other sins.

  And our Lord very humbly revealed great help for this: the patience with which he bore his terrible Passion and also the joy and delight which that Passion gave him because of his love. And he showed by his example that we should bear our sufferings gladly and lightly, because that pleases him greatly and profits us for ever. And we are troubled by them because we do not recognize love. Though the three persons of the Trinity are all equal in themselves, my soul understood love most clearly, yes, and God wants us to consider and enjoy love in everything. And this is the knowledge of which we are most ignorant; for some of us believe that God is all mighty and has power to do everything, and that he is all wisdom and knows how to do everything, but that he is all love and is willing to do everything – there we stop. And it seems to me that this ignorance is what most hinders those who love God; for when we begin to hate sin, and to mend our ways under the laws of Holy Church, there still remains some fear which holds us back, out of concern for ourselves, and our previous sins, and some of us for our daily sins – for we do not keep our promises or preserve the purity in which the Lord has established us, but often fall into such sinfulness that it is shameful to see it.

  And seeing this makes us sorry and so unhappy that we can hardly find any comfort, and we sometimes take this fear for humility, but it is foul ignorance and weakness. And we cannot despise it as we do some other sin that we recognize, for it comes from the Enemy, and it is contrary to truth; for of all the properties of the Holy Trinity, it is God’s wish that we should place most reliance and take most delight in liking and love; for love makes God’s power and wisdom very gentle to us; for just as through his generosity God forgives our sin when we repent, so he wants us to forget our sin of unreasonable depression and doubtful fear.

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  There are four kinds of fear, but reverent fear is a true and loving fear, which never exists without meek love; and yet they are not the same thing; and how we should pray to God for them.

  For I recognize four kinds of fear. One is the fear of attack which suddenly comes to a man through weakness. This fear does good, for it helps to purify people, just like bodily sickness or other sufferings which are not sinful; for all such suffering helps people if it is endured patiently.

  The second fear is that of punishment, whereby someone is stirred and woken from the sleep of sin; for those who are deep in the sleep of sin are for the time being unable to perceive the gentle comfort of the Holy Ghost, until they have experienced this fear of punishment, of bodily death and of spiritual enemies. And this fear moves us to seek the comfort and mercy of God; and so it helps us and enables us to be contrite through the blessed touch of the Holy Ghost.

  The third is doubtful fear. Since it leads us on to despair, God wants us to turn doubtful fear into love through the knowledge of love; that is to say, the bitterness of doubt is to be turned into the sweetness of tender love through grace. For it can never please our Lord that his servants doubt his goodness.

  The fourth is reverent fear; the only fear we can have which thoroughly pleases God is reverent fear; and it is very gentle; the more we have it, the less we feel it because of the sweetness of love. Love and fear are brothers; and they are rooted in us by the goodness of our Maker, and they will never be taken from us for all eternity. To love is granted us by nature, and to love is granted us by grace; and to fear is granted us by nature, and to fear is granted us by grace. It is fitting that God’s lordship and fatherhood should be feared, as it is fitting for his goodness to be loved; and it is fitting for us who are his servants and his children to fear him as lord and as father, as it is fitting for us to love him for his goodness. And though this reverent fear and love are not separable, yet they are not one and the same. They are two in their nature and their way of working, yet neither of them may be had without the other. Therefore I am certain that those who love also fear, though they may only feel it a little.

  Even though they may appear to be holy, all the fears which face us, apart from reverent fear, are not truly so; and this is how they may be told apart. The fear which makes us quickly flee from all that is not good and fall upon our Lord’s breast like a child upon its mother’s bosom, which makes us do this with all our mind and with all our will-power, knowing our feebleness and our great need, knowing God’s everlasting goodness and his blessed love, seeking salvation only in him and clinging to him with sure trust – the fear which makes us do this is natural, gracious, good and true. And everything cont
rary to this is either completely wrong or partly wrong.

  This is the remedy, then: to recognize them both and refuse the wrong one. For the same natural profit which we gain from fear in this life through the gracious working of the Holy Ghost, shall in heaven be gracious, courteous and delightful in God’s sight. And so in love we should be familiar and near to God, and in fear we should be gracious and courteous to God, and both equally.

  Let us ask God that we may fear him reverently and love him humbly and trust him strongly; for when we fear him reverently and love him humbly, our trust is never in vain; the greater and stronger our trust in God, the more we please and honour the Lord we trust. And if we fail in this reverent fear and meek love (which God forbid we should), our trust will soon slacken for the time being. And therefore we have a great need to pray to God that by his grace we may have this reverent fear and meek love, as his gift, in our hearts and in our deeds; for without this, no one can please God.

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  How we need love, longing and pity; and of three kinds of longing for God which are in us; and how on Judgement Day the joy of the blessed will be increased when they truly see the cause of all God has done, trembling in fear and thanking in joy, marvelling at the greatness of God and the littleness of all that is made.

  I saw that God can do all that is necessary for us; and these three are necessary: love, longing and pity. Pity in love protects us in our time of need, and longing in the same love draws us up to heaven; for God’s thirst is to draw mankind in general up into himself, and in this thirst he has drawn up the holy ones who are now in bliss; and to get the living, he is always drawing and drinking, yet he still thirsts and longs.

  I saw three kinds of longing in God, and all to one end; and we have the same longing in us, and of the same power, and to the same end. The first is that he longs to teach us to know him and love him for evermore, as is fitting and beneficial for us. The second is that he longs to have us up in his bliss, as souls are when they are taken out of suffering into heaven. The third is to fill us with bliss; and that longing shall be fulfilled on the final day, to last for ever; for I saw, as our faith assures us, that suffering and sorrow will end for all those who will be saved. And not only shall we receive the same bliss which the souls before us have had in heaven, but we shall also receive new bliss which will flow into us abundantly out of God and fill us; and this is the good which he has ordained that we should be given since before time began. This good is treasured up and hidden in himself; for until that time, no being is able or deserves to receive it.

  In this moment we shall truly see the cause of all that he has done; and for evermore we shall see the cause of everything which he has allowed to happen. And the bliss and fulfilment shall be so deep and so high that in their wonder and amazement all created beings will feel such reverent fear for God, surpassing everything seen and felt before, that the pillars of heaven shall tremble and quake.

  But this kind of trembling and fear will bring no suffering, for it befits the noble might of God thus to be seen by his creatures, as they tremble fearfully and quake with meekness of joy, marvelling at the greatness of God the Maker and the littleness of all that is made; for seeing this will make all created beings marvellously meek and mild. Therefore God wants us to know and recognize this, and it befits us to do so, both by nature and by grace, to long for his sight and for this to happen, because it leads us in the right way and keeps us in the true life and unites us to God.

  And God is as great as he is good, and as much as it belongs to his goodness to be loved, so much it belongs to his greatness to be feared; for this reverent fear is the fair courtesy shown before God’s face in heaven. And he will then be feared beyond our present fear as much as he will be loved and known beyond our present knowledge and love. Therefore it needs must be that all heaven and earth shall tremble and quake when the pillars tremble and quake.

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  A loving soul hates sin for its vileness more than all the torment of hell; and how looking at someone else’s sin (unless it be with compassion) prevents us from looking at God; and the Devil, by reminding us of our sinful wretchedness, would also prevent us; and of our sloth.

  I am saying very little about reverent fear, for I hope that what I have said will be enough. But I am quite sure that our Lord showed me no souls who did not fear him, for I am quite sure that the soul which truly accepts the teaching of the Holy Ghost hates sin for its vileness and hideousness more than all the torments of hell; for it seems to me that the soul which considers the kindness of our Lord Jesus hates no hell but sin. And so it is God’s will that we recognize sin, and pray earnestly and work hard and humbly seek for guidance so that we do not fall into it blindly; and if we fall, that we rise again quickly, for turning from God through sin even for a moment is the greatest torment a soul can ever suffer.

  The soul that wants to be at peace must flee from thoughts of other people’s sins as though from the pains of hell, begging God for a remedy and for help against it; for the consideration of other people’s sins makes a sort of thick mist before the eyes of the soul, and during such times we cannot see the beauty of God unless we regard the sins with sorrow for those who commit them, with compassion and with a holy wish for God to help them; for if we do not do this the consideration of sins harms and distresses and hinders the soul; I understood this in the revelation of compassion.67

  In this blessed showing of our Lord’s I understood two contrary things: one, the wisest thing that anyone can do in this life; the other, the most foolish.68 The wisdom is for people to behave according to the wishes and advice of their greatest and most supreme friend. This blessed friend is Jesus, and it is his will and his advice that we should bind ourselves to him and direct ourselves towards him, familiarly, for evermore, in whatever state we may be, for whether we are sinful or pure his love for us is the same. In weal or woe, he never wants us to flee from him, but because of our own changeability we often fall into sin. When this happens, it comes to us by the provocation of our Enemy, through our own folly and blindness, which say, ‘You know very well that you are a wretch, a sinner, and also faithless, for you do not obey God’s commands; you often promise our Lord that you will do better, and immediately afterwards you fall back into the same sin, especially sloth and time-wasting’ – for these are the beginning of sin, it seems to me, especially for people who have vowed to serve our Lord with inward contemplation of his blessed goodness. And this makes us afraid of appearing before our courteous Lord. So it is our enemy the Devil who sets us back with false fear of our sinfulness and the punishment with which he threatens us; for with these he intends to make us so unhappy and so weary that we shall forget the fair, blessed consideration of our everlasting Friend.

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  Of the enmity of the Fiend, who loses more by our rising than he gains by our falling, and so becomes an object of scorn; and how punishment from God should be borne with his Passion in mind, for that receives a greater reward than penance we have chosen ourselves; and we must suffer, but kind and courteous God is our leader, protector and bliss.

  Our good Lord showed the enmity of the Fiend, from which I understood that everything that is contrary to love and peace is caused by the Fiend and his works. And our feebleness and folly make us fall, and the mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost make us rise to greater joy. And if our Enemy wins anything from us by our falling (for that is what pleases him), he loses many times more from our rising through love and humility. And this glorious rising causes him such great sorrow and pain, from his hatred for our souls, that he is continually burning with resentment. And all this sorrow which he wants to cause us will be turned against him. And this is what made our Lord despise him, and this made me laugh heartily.

  This is the remedy, then: that we should acknowledge our sinfulness and flee to our Lord, for the readier we are to do this, the more it will profit us to approach him. And let us say this to ourselves, ‘I know very well that I am sufferin
g grievously, but our Lord is all mighty and can punish me mightily, and he is all wisdom and can punish me wisely, and he is all goodness and loves me very tenderly.’ And it is necessary for us to keep to this view; for it shows a lovely meekness in a sinful soul, brought about by the mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, when we willingly and gladly take the scourging and chastening our Lord himself wants to give us.

  And it will be very gentle and very easy if we will only be content with him and all his works; for the penance which people impose on themselves was not shown to me, that is to say, it was not shown especially; but it was shown especially and powerfully and most beautifully that we should humbly and patiently bear and suffer the penance which God himself gives us, remembering his blessed Passion. For when we remember his blessed Passion, with pity and love, then we suffer with him as his friends did who saw it, and this was shown in the thirteenth revelation, near the beginning, where it speaks of pity; for he says, ‘Do not accuse yourself overmuch, claiming that your tribulation and woe is all your own fault. I do not want you to be unreasonably sad and sorrowful; for I tell you that you will suffer woe whatever you do. And therefore I want you to recognize clearly what your penance is, and then you will truly see that your whole life is a profitable penance.’

  This place is a prison and this life a penance, and he wants us to find joy in the remedy. The remedy is that our Lord is with us, protecting and leading us into the fullness of joy; for it is an endless joy to us, as our Lord intends, that he who will be our bliss when we are there will be our protector while we are here. Our way and our heaven are true love and sure trust; and he made this understood in all the showings, especially in the showing of his Passion where he made me choose him absolutely for my heaven.