Revelations of Divine Love

by Julian of Norwich

  86

  The good Lord showed that this book should be completed differently from the way it was first written; and this is the way he wants us to pray to him for his work, thanking, trusting and rejoicing in him; and how he revealed this showing because he wants to make it known, in which knowledge he will give us grace to love him; for fifteen years later came the answer that the cause of all this showing was love, which may Jesus grant us. Amen.

  This book was begun by God’s gift and his grace, but it seems to me that it is not yet completed. With God’s inspiration let us all pray to him for charity, thanking, trusting and rejoicing; for this is how our good Lord wants us to pray to him, as I understood from all that he conveyed, and from the sweet words where he says very cheeringly, ‘I am the foundation of your prayers’;73 for I truly saw and understood in what our Lord conveyed that he showed this because he wants to have it better known than it is. Through this knowledge he will give us grace to love and cling to him; for he feels such great love for his heavenly treasure on earth that he wants to give us clearer and more comforting sight of heavenly joy as he draws our hearts to him, because of the sorrow and darkness which we are in.

  And from the time that this was shown, I often longed to know what our Lord meant. And fifteen years and more later my spiritual understanding received an answer, which was this: ‘Do you want to know what your Lord meant? Know well that love was what he meant. Who showed you this? Love. What did he show? Love. Why did he show it to you? For love. Hold fast to this and you will know and understand more of the same; but you will never understand or know from it anything else for all eternity.’ This is how I was taught that our Lord’s meaning was love. And I saw quite certainly in this and in everything that God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall. And all his works were done in this love; and in this love he has made everything for our profit; and in this love our life is everlasting. We had our beginning when we were made; but the love in which he made us was in him since before time began; and in this love we have our beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end, which may Jesus grant us. Amen.

  Thus ends the revelation of love of the Holy Trinity shown by our Saviour Christ Jesu for our everlasting comfort and joy, and also to help us rejoice in him in the transitory journey of this life. Amen, Jesu, Amen.

  I pray to almighty God that this book come only into the hands of those who want to love him faithfully, and to those who are willing to submit themselves to the faith of Holy Church and obey the sound understanding and teaching of men of virtuous life, grave years and profound learning; for this revelation is deep theology and great wisdom, so it must not remain with anyone who is thrall to sin and the Devil. And beware that you do not take one thing according to your taste and fancy and leave another, for that is what heretics do. But take everything together and truly understand that everything is in accordance with holy scripture and grounded in it, and Jesus our true love, light and truth will show this wisdom concerning himself to all pure souls who ask for it humbly and perseveringly. And you to whom this book may come, thank our Saviour Jesu Christ earnestly and heartily for making these showings and revelations of his endless love, mercy and goodness for you and to you, to be your and our safe guide and conduct to everlasting bliss; which may Jesus grant us. Amen.

  Appendix I

  List of Showings

  Showing 1 (ST chapters 3–7; LT chapters 4–9): Julian sees blood trickling from the crown of thorns on the crucifix and has experiences of the Trinity and of the Blessed Virgin.

  Showing 2 (ST chapter 8; LT chapter 10): she sees the face on the crucifix change colour.

  Showing 3 (ST chapter 8; LT chapter 11): she sees God in an instant and understands that he is in all things.

  Showing 4 (ST chapter 8; LT chapter 12): she sees blood flowing from the wounds on Christ’s body and then vanishing.

  Showing 5 (ST chapter 8; LT chapter 13): God shows that his Passion defeats the devil.

  Showing 6 (ST chapters 8–9; LT chapter 14): God thanks Julian for her suffering and shows her the bliss of heaven.

  Showing 7 (ST chapter 9; LT chapter 15): God gives Julian alternating experiences of joy and sorrow.

  Showing 8 (ST chapters 10–11; LT chapters 16–21): Julian sees Christ’s body drying as he suffers bodily death, and shares in the pain caused to all creatures. Her reason suggests that she should look up to heaven, but she chooses the dying Jesus as her heaven. (LT only: When he seems on the point of death, his expression changes.)

  Showing 9 (ST chapter 12; LT chapters 22–3): Jesus affirms his pleasure in suffering for Julian’s sake, and shows her three heavens in his Humanity.

  Showing 10 (ST chapter 13; LT chapter 24): Jesus shows Julian his heart within his wounded side.

  Showing 11 (ST chapter 13; LT chapter 25): Jesus allows Julian to see the Blessed Virgin.

  Showing 12 (ST chapter 13; LT chapter 26): God reveals himself in glory.

  Showing 13 (ST chapters 13–18; LT chapters 27–40): God affirms that, despite sin and suffering, all shall be well. (LT only: This will be by means of a great deed to be performed at the end of the world.)

  Showing 14 (ST chapter 19; LT chapters 41–3): God tells Julian that prayers are inspired by him and please him.

  Showing 15 (ST chapter 20; LT chapters 64–5): God promises Julian that he will be her reward for suffering.

  Showing 16 (ST chapter 22; LT chapters 67–8): God shows Julian Jesus in her soul and grants her certainty that her showings come from Jesus.

  Appendix II

  Original Texts of the Revelations

  The following passages are taken from the texts translated in this volume.

  FROM ST, CHAPTER 4

  And this same tyme that I sawe this bodyly syght, oure Lorde schewyd me a gastelye sight of his hamly lovynge. I sawe that he es to us alle thynge that is goode and comfortabylle to oure helpe. He es oure clethynge, for loove wappes us and wyndes us, halses us and alle beteches, hynges aboute us for tendyr loove, that he maye nevere leve us. And so in this sight Y sawe sothelye that he ys alle thynge that ys goode, as to myne understandynge.

  And in this he schewyd me a lytille thynge, the qwantyte of a haselle nutte, lyggande in the palme of my hande, and to my undyrstandynge that, it was as rownde as any balle. I lokede theropon and thought, ‘Whate maye this be?’ And I was aunswerde generaly thus, ‘It is alle that ys made.’ I merveylede how that it myght laste, for me thought it myght falle sodaynlye to nought for litille. And I was aunswerde in myne undyrstandynge, ‘It lastes and ever schalle, for God loves it; and so hath alle thynge the beynge thorowe the love of God.’ In this lytille thynge I sawe thre partyes. The fyrste is that God made it, the seconde ys that he loves it, the thyrde ys that God kepes it. Botte whate is that to me? Sothelye the makere, the lovere, the kepere. For to I am substancyallye aned to hym, I may nevere have love, reste, ne varray blysse; that is to saye that I be so festenede to hym that thare be ryght nought that is made betwyxe my God and me. And wha schalle do this dede? Sothlye hymselfe, be his mercye and his grace, for he has made me thereto and blysfullye restoryd …

  FROM LT, CHAPTER 43

  Prayor onyth the soule to God; for thow the soule be ever lyke to God in kynde and substance, restorid be grace, it is often onlyke in condition be synne on manys partye. Than is prayor a wittnes that the soule will as God will, and comfortith the conscience and ablith man to grace. And thus he techith us to prayen, and mytyly to trosten that we shal have it; for he beholdith us in love and wil makyn us partyner of his gode dede, and therfore he steryth us to prayen that that likyth hym to don; for which prayors and gode will that he wil have of his gyft he wil reward us and gevyn us endless mede. And this was shewid in this word, ‘And thou besekyst it.’ In this word God shewid so gret plesance and so gret lykyng, as he were mekyl beholden to us for every god dede that we don – and yet it is he that doth it – and for that we besekyn hym mytyly to don althyng that hy
m lekyt; as if he seid, ‘What myte then plese me more than to besekyn mytyly, wisely and wilfully to do that thyng that I shal don?’ And thus the soule be prayor accordyth to God.

  But whan our curtes lord of his grace shewith hymse[l]fe to our soule, we have that we desire; and than we se not for the tyme what we shuld pray, but al our entent with al our myte is sett holy to the beholdyng of hym; and this is an hey, onperc[ey]vable prayor, as to my syte; for al the cause wherfor we prayen, it is onyd into the syte and beholdyng of hym to whome we prayen, mervelously enioyand with reverent drede and so grete sweteness and delite in hym that we can pray ryth nowte but as he steryth us for the tyme. And wel I wote the mor the soule seeth of God the more it desyrith hym be his grace. But whan we sen hym not so, than fele we nede and cause to pray, for faylyng, for ablyng of ourselfe to Iesus; for whan the soule is tempested, troublid and left to hymself be onreste, than it is tyme to prayen to maken hymselfe supple and buxum to God …

  Appendix III

  Margery Kempe’s Meeting with Julian

  And then she was commanded by our Lord to go to an anchoress in the same city [Norwich, where she took advice from the friar William Southfield] who was called Dame Julian. And so she did, and told her about the grace, that God had put into her soul, of compunction, contrition, sweetness and devotion, compassion with holy meditation and high contemplation, and very many holy speeches and converse that our Lord spoke to her soul, and also many wonderful revelations, which she described to the anchoress to find out if there were any deception in them, for the anchoress was expert in such things and could give good advice.

  The anchoress, hearing the marvellous goodness of our Lord, highly thanked God with all her heart for his visitation, advising this creature to be obedient to the will of our Lord and fulfil with all her might whatever he put into her soul, if it were not against the worship of God and the profit of her fellow Christians. For if it were, then it were not the influence of a good spirit, but rather of an evil spirit. ‘The Holy Ghost never urges a thing against charity, and if he did, he would be contrary to his own self, for he is all charity. Also he moves a soul to all chasteness, for chaste livers are called the temple of the Holy Ghost,1 and the Holy Ghost makes a soul stable and steadfast in the right faith and the right belief.

  ‘And a double man in soul is always unstable and unsteadfast in all his ways.2 He that is forever doubting is like the wave of the sea which is moved and borne about with the wind, and that man is not likely to receive the gifts of God.3

  ‘Any creature that has these tokens may steadfastly believe that the Holy Ghost dwells in his soul. And much more, when God visits a creature with tears of contrition, devotion or compassion, he may and ought to believe that the Holy Ghost is in his soul. St Paul says that the Holy Ghost asks for us with mourning and weeping unspeakable;4 that is to say, he causes us to ask and pray with mourning and weeping so plentifully that the tears may not be numbered. No evil spirit may give these tokens, for St Jerome says that tears torment the devil more than do the pains of hell.5 God and the devil are always at odds, and they shall never dwell together in one place, and the devil has no power in a man’s soul.

  ‘Holy Writ says that the soul of a righteous man is the seat of God,6 and so I trust, sister, that you are. I pray God grant you perseverance. Set all your trust in God and do not fear the talk of the world, for the more contempt, shame and reproof that you have in this world, the more is your merit in the sight of God.7 Patience is necessary for you, for in that shall you keep your soul.’8

  Great was the holy conversation that the anchoress and this creature had through talking of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for the many days that they were together.

  NOTES

  1 1 Corinthians 6:19.

  2 James 1:8.

  3 James 1:6–7.

  4 Romans 8:26.

  5 Popularly attributed to St Jerome, although no precise equivalent has been found in his writings. The Middle English treatise Speculum Christiani has St Jerome say, ‘Prayers please God but tears constrain him’, and St Bernard says, ‘Tears of a sinner torment the devil more than every kind of torture.’

  6 Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16; Apocalypse 21:3; also Ezekiel 37:27–8; and the texts from St John echoed in chapter 10 above [i.e. John 14:20; 15:4–5; 17:23; 6:57; also 1 John 4:1, 6, 12, 13].

  7 Luke 6:22–3.

  8 Luke 21:19.

  (Text and notes from The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. B. A. Windeatt, Harmondsworth, 1985, pp. 77–9)

  Notes

  SHORT TEXT

  1 terror and turmoil of the fiends: Medieval pictures of death-beds often show devils waiting eagerly to grasp the dying person’s soul.

  2 Saint Cecilia … painfully died: The legend of Saint Cecilia recounts that she was an aristocratic Christian girl in pagan Rome who, after converting her intended husband and his brother to Christianity, was sentenced to be beheaded. Three sword strokes failed to kill her immediately, but she died three days later. In the late fourteenth century Chaucer retold the story and included it in The Canterbury Tales as the ‘Second Nun’s Tale’.

  3 Benedicite dominus: ‘Blessed be thou, Lord!’

  4 Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: Luke 1:38.

  5 three nothings: Probably (in this chapter) all that is created, and (in chapter 8) sin and the Devil. Julian repeats various forms of the word nought throughout this paragraph, as indicated by the repetitions of ‘nothing’ in the translation.

  6 an instant: The word used by Julian, poynte, can mean a point of space or of time.

  7 what sin is … as I shall recount later: In chapters 13 and 17.

  8 every man’s age: I.e. the age at which a person dedicated himself or herself to God.

  9 Lord save me, I perish: Julian alludes to but does not quote exactly Saint Paul’s words in Romans 8:35 and the cries for help of the disciples in Matthew 8:25 and of Saint Peter in Matthew 14:30.

  10 I thirst: Christ’s words on the cross in John 19:28.

  11 spiritual thirst … as I shall say later: In chapter 15.

  12 as Saint Paul says … in Jesus Christ: Cf. Philippians 2:5, which in the Vulgate reads: ‘Hoc enim sentite in vobis’ (literally, ‘For feel this in you’).

  13 only in pain: Here Julian deliberately rejects the possibility of transcendent contemplation of the Godhead, almost as if it were a temptation, in favour of a continuing focus on Christ in his suffering Humanity.

  14 blessed Manhood of Christ: In what follows, the bodily emphasis of Julian’s vision goes so far that she sees the whole Trinity within Christ’s Humanity.

  15 the longing I had had for him: This is ‘the wound of an earnest longing for God’ mentioned by Julian in chapter 1 as part of the third gift she had asked from God before she received her showings.

  16 our Lord is our portion: Cf. Psalm 15:5 (16:5 in Protestant Bibles).

  17 privy counsel should be undisturbed: Julian imagines God as if he were an earthly king with a ‘privy council’ with whom he discusses high matters of state.

  18 David … Magdalene: Julian lists various sinners who are nevertheless honoured by the Church for their spiritual achievements. David, the king of Judah, traditionally regarded as the author of the Psalms and as the human ancestor of Jesus, committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah. Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection (Mark 16:9), was identified in the Middle Ages with the ‘sinner’ who washed and anointed Jesus’ feet and was told by him, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’ (Luke 7:37–48); her sin was said to have been sexual promiscuity or even prostitution. She was also identified with Mary the sister of Martha; Martha complained that Mary did not help her serve Jesus when he visited their house, but merely sat at his feet and ‘heard his word’, but Jesus told her, ‘Mary hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:38–42). Since Mary and Martha were seen as types of the contemplative and active lives, Mary Magdalene would have a special interest
for Julian, who chose the best part in becoming an anchorite and receiving God’s showings rather than serving society. Peter, the apostle whom Jesus described as the rock on which he would build his Church (Matthew 16:18), and who became the first Pope, sinned conspicuously after Jesus’ arrest in denying three times that he was one of his followers (Matthew 26:69–74). Paul had sinned in persecuting the earliest Christians, before undergoing a visionary conversion on the road to Damascus, embarking on his great missionary journeys and writing the epistles on which Christian theology was founded. Thomas was famous as the apostle who questioned Jesus’ resurrection until he was able to touch the wounds in his hands and side (John 20:25–9); but it was believed that he later made good this sin of doubt by taking Christianity to India, where he was martyred.

  19 sufferings: In this passage, and in others in both texts, Julian uses the word payne to mean both ‘suffering’ and ‘punishment’ (the two senses are not clearly distinguished in Middle English). Translation is difficult, because for Julian sin is both suffering and its own punishment.