Here, in two installments, are excerpts from an introduction I wrote to my favorite spiritual writer, Julian of Norwich. Part 2 next time.
David Holgate’s statue of Julian, outside Norwich Cathedral
Out of the sky of fourteenth century England floats down to us a little stained-glass-window of a book entitled Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich. The book may be drily characterized as a mystical discourse on the love of God. What it really is, however, is an adventure story of the interior life. It is an adventure in which an intrepid, gutsy little lady sets out on a lone voyage in the frail vessel of her own body, with her own bare soul hoisted as a sail to the winds of God, and so passes from sickness to health, from the doorway of death into life. It is a great spiritual adventure which begins (strange to say) with a fervent desire to share Christ’s suffering, and ends with a profound possession of Christ Himself and the secret of His love.
Julian was born in 1342 and died sometime after 1416. We know that she spent the latter part of her life as a recluse in Norwich, enclosed in a cell within the wall of a church. As far as we can determine she wrote only this one book comprised of eighty-six short chapters (though a briefer version is also extant). She received the inspiration for the book when she was thirty, and spent the next twenty years thinking about it, writing, and revising. From these few facts we might almost construe a formula or secret to Julian’s appeal as a writer: that 95% of her writing was thinking, and 95% of her thinking was prayer.
In 1349, when Julian was seven years old, the bubonic plague struck her town of Norwich, probably killing a third of the population. The next twenty years saw further sporadic outbreaks of the plague, in which Julian might well have lost part, or all, of her family. This may have influenced her radical decision to become a recluse, and no doubt further motivated her to explore one of her major themes, the mystery of suffering. Indeed the main action of this book takes place in bed, where the writer is prostrated by a serious illness and comes close to death. At the most critical point of the illness, with her eyes fixed upon a crucifix, she relates that she received, over a period of about five hours, a series of revelations from God. The rest of the book is a long meditation on the content of these sixteen revelations or “shewings.”
What are we to make of these experiences? The further we read, the more we realize that the term revelation refers not just to one variety of occurrence, but rather that each separate revelation has its own peculiar mode of being conveyed, so that the medium is very much a part of the message. Some of the revelations are quite dramatic, while others have all the subtlety of a wink. Some are auditory, some are visual, while some are seen only in the mind’s eye. One fascinating episode consists entirely of rapidly alternating feelings of “supreme and spiritual pleasure” with “loneliness and depression.” The third revelation, similarly, features no dramatic words or full-color visions, but appears to come more to the understanding: “I looked attentively, seeing and understanding with quiet fear.”
The sheer variety of senses and faculties employed in these revelations has the effect of creating a remarkably whole and satisfying picture. It is as if God has specifically set out to touch each one of His creature’s faculties to awaken it in some new way. What makes these revelations, then, is not so much the type of experience being described, but rather the content of the message, its truth, and just the sense that it has come not from the author of the book but from the Author of Truth: “I had a strong, deep conviction that it was He Himself and none other that showed me this vision.” And so the reader too comes to accept that what Julian experienced are not simply psychological events but interpersonal ones.
In the end, this is not a book about suffering but about love. Indeed it is all about love. As Julian says, “The whole of life is grounded and rooted in love, and without love we cannot live,” and, “Unending, continuing love—with the assurance and the blessedness of salvation—this was the whole point of the revelations.” In fact in one revelation the Lord says to her, “You would know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love. Remain in this, and you will know and understand more and more. But you will not know or learn anything else—ever!”
Next Post: Julian of Norwich, Part 2: God’s Great Deed
