Julian writes using vivid imagery (a hazelnut a point in space a parable of The Lord and his servant, the latter buried in a ditch drowning in the broad waters off Norwich which so often flooded the motherhood of Jesus). For her, the love by which Jesus suffers the pains of dying surpasses any of those pains. Jesus shows her a blissful face and tells her: "Where is now any point of thy pain or thy grief ? It is a joy, a bliss and endless delight to me that ever I suffered my passion for thee and if I might suffer more, I would suffer more." For Julian in her revelations sin was never shown. She came to see that "he is our clothing, that for love wraps us and winds us, embraces us and totally encloses us, hanging about us for tender love."Įventually, Julian realizes that there is no wrath in God only love. The blood clotted on Jesus reminded her of the scales of a herring (a common fish eaten in Norwich). She saw red blood trickling from his crowned head. She saw nothing except the image of the cross in a transparent light and heard Jesus speak to her about his passion and death. Reading Julian during Lent is also appropriate since her visions began as she lay dying and a crucifix was held before her.
I bring her up because I am often asked by people to suggest good reading for Lent and because a new, truly fresh and magisterial, commentary on Julian's revelations has been recently published: Veronica Mary Rolf, “Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life and Revelations of Julian of Norwich” (Orbis Books, 2013). In many ways, Julian, who once said she wished she could have been with Mary Magdelene and the other women around Jesus, turned out to write a kind of woman's version of the gospel. Elliot's poem, “Little Gidding”): "And all shall be well and every manner of thing shall be well." The whole world, of course, knows of her well-known lines (which also form lines in T.S.
She ended her life as an anchoress in a hermitage next to the Church of Saint Julian in Norwich. Julian was an extraordinary woman-most likely a wife and mother probably a daughter or wife of a wool merchant and, of course, the first woman to write any book in English. The latter represented not new revelations but a long, reflective exposition and even profound theological reflection on her original revelations. These were never published in her lifetime and, in many ways, only became available near the 20th century. A longer version, The Revelations of Love, she wrote after some twenty or more years of reflection on her mystic experience. The shorter version- The Showings-were finished before 1390 and were published in Julian's lifetime. There are two versions of her revelations. I spent an entire summer reading and re-reading and continuously praying over that mystic's writings based on the revelations she received in 1373 as she lay dying. Thirty-five years ago by chance I came across a new edition of The Showings of Julian of Norwich.
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