Message from Father William

St. Benedict's Monastery

1012 Monastery Road

Snowmass, Colo. 81654

Apart from what is contained in her writings,we don’t know much about Julian of Norwich.She does give us give us one important date, May 8, 1373. She tells us and that she was 30 1/2 years old at this time, so we can give 1342 some certainty as her date of birth. We have copies of several wills leaving her bequests, and showing that she was still alive in 1423. From a previous bequest from 1416 we learn that in her later years she had two servants named Sarah and Alice and was bequeathed the sum of 20 shillings. The date of her death and the place of her burial is unknown but she probably lived to be about 80 years old. We know nothing of her family or ancestry. Even her name, Julian, was probably received from the church of Saint's Julian and Edward to which her cell was attached and which was then 400 years old.
 
For many years we knew nothing of Julian based on contemporary sources. However in 1936 there was made an exciting discovery "The Book of Marjorie Kempe". Marjorie was a prominent visionary who flourished in the early 15th century .She writes of a visit to Dame Julian on whose spiritual discernment and good counsel she knew she could rely.
 
Julian is known to us today for a series of 16 visions which were given to her on May 8, 1373. These visions centered on the holy Trinity and on the person and sufferings of Jesus. She first wrote them down a short time after receiving them, adding only a brief commentary. She then reflected on them further for a period of 20 years when she finally wrote the book for which she is now remembered, "Showings of Divine Love". This is referred to as The Longer Text while the version written 20 years previously is called the Shorter Text. The longer text is about four times the length of the previous one. It is noted for the depth of its theology, the extent of its compassion, and the unsurpassed beauty of its language.
 
On May 8, 1373, the third Sunday after Easter, Julian had been lying desperately ill for a week. Neither she not those around her thought she would survive and she had received the last rites from the parish priest. She was quite ready to die and praying that her death might be to God's glory. "Reason and sufferings alike told me I was going to die, so I surrendered my will wholeheartedly to the will of God." On the very early hours of Sunday morning her priest was summoned to be present at her death. He brought with him a small boy bearing a crucifix. Holding it before her eyes the priest said, "I have brought you the image of your maker and Savior. Look at it and be strengthened." Suddenly, she tells us, all my pain was taken away and I was as fit and well as I had ever been. It was then, beginning at 4 a.m. that her revelations were given to her, 15 of them now and one the following evening.
 
It was probably some time after these revelations that Julian embraced the solitary life. This would explain the presence of her mother and friends when she was thought to be dying The life of the solitary was a common vocation in Julian's time. 50 or more solitaries were known in Norwich alone as having been attached to churches or other buildings. In addition to living a life of prayer, which was its primary purpose, the solitary also gave spiritual direction from a window which looked out onto the world. Julian's natural and spontaneous joy in God as her father and mother suggests a serene and happy childhood. It is frequently supposed that at the time of her visions Julian was a member of the Benedictine convent just a mile from Norwich where she had probably received her theological training.
 
Julian's early years were lived in what may well have been the most traumatic period of English history. The bubonic plague, known as the Black death, struck when Julian was six years old and killed over half the population of Norwich. There was a second and third outbreak when Julian was 18 and 27. The cries of the dying, the mass burials and its attendant horrors surely left their mark on the life and writings of one as sensitive as Dame Julian.How,she wondered,could there be a loving God overseeing such horrors?

In her cell attached to the church at Norwich, Julian lived and prayed, took her meals and slept, worked at some simple tasks such as needlework, meditated on her book and wrote its pages, and counseled many from her little window looking toward the street. Opposite this was another window through which she could see into the church, attend mass, and receive communion. Here she spent up to 40 years.
 
In her beautiful little book Julian gives us a very unique and original approach to God. But perhaps it could be said that in the visions Julian received, God is the one who gives the unique and original approach. There could be two basic approaches to God. Let me use what might be a ridiculous example to illustrate them. Suppose God were to be interviewed by two different people. One of these interviewers would be Adam. This would be an interview from a human point of view and because humans are flawed its interpretation of God as expressed by the interview would be flawed. We actually do see many examples of this kind of interview in the Bible itself. Whatever God is spoken of anthropomorphically that is describing him with human characteristics we see the kind of interview Adam would give. So God is sometimes described as being angry, vengeful, inpatient, drunk, etc. Now the other kind of interview would be the kind that would be given by Jesus, by the son of God. He really knows God. In fact no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son reveals him. This interview would give us a very accurate description of God. One that would not be based on a re-creation of God in the human image and likeness such as Adams interview was. This interview would speak of God from God's viewpoint and not from man's. This is what happened to Julian and what she expresses in her book. You might say it is a revelation about God from God's point of view. I do not know of anyone who does this more accurately, impressively and beautifully than Julian does. Based on the information she received in her visions and on the 20 years she spent meditating on them, Julian is able to give us the story of creation, and redemption from the point of view of God. We are not used to this point of view and some of us, indeed, may find it difficult to accept .
 
The most important of Julian's visions is that of the Lord and the servant found in Chapter 51. It is given in the form of a parable, an extended image. It represents a creative reworking of several Biblical motifs including the fall of Adam, the suffering servant of Isaiah, and the parables of the prodigal son, the workers in the vineyard, and the treasure hidden in the field. The essential story is that of a dignified and peaceful Lord who sends his beloved servant on an errand. When the servant dashes off to perform his Lord's will, he immediately falls into a ditch and is badly bruised. No one is there to help him, and he cannot get out of the ditch by himself. But the chief source of his pain, according to Julian, is his lack of consolation stemming from his inability to see his Lord.No-fault or blame is assigned to the servant for the situation that has befallen him.
 
This parable speaks of a wisdom not accessible to mere human logic. Through story and imagery the nature of divine love and God's union with humanity is revealed. The allegory of the Lord and the servant presents a retelling of the fall of Adam, that is of the human race, but also the story of the fall of Christ from being equal to God and emptying himself of his divine dignity and taking on the form of a servant. Because it is the story of Adam and of Christ, the second Adam, it is also the story of you and me. It is the story of our fall, of our sins, our depressions, our regrets, our miseries and sufferings. But it is that story not seen through the eyes of imperfect mortal men but as seen through the eyes of an infinitely loving God. It represents the story of salvation seen in retrospect from the wisdom of God's perspective. It is the most comprehensive and indeed the truest way of regarding the human condition. Let me read it to you in Julian's own words.
 
I saw two persons in bodily form, a Lord and his servant. The Lord is seated in the solemn state, at rest and in peace. The servant is standing by his Lord respectfully, ready to do his masters will. With love, gracious and tender, the Lord looks upon his servant and sends him on an errand to a certain place. Not only does the servant go, but he darts off at once, running at great speed, for love's sake, to do his masters bidding. Almost at once he falls into a ditch and hurts himself badly. He moans and groans, cries out and struggles, but he cannot get out or help himself in any way. Yet, as I saw it, his greatest trial was that there was no comfort at hand; for he was unable so much as to turn his face to look upon his loving Lord, in whom is full comfort, and this, although he was very close to him. Instead, behaving weakly and foolishly for the time being he thought only of his own grief and distress.
 
I marveled at how this servant could meekly suffer such distress, and I looked carefully to see if I could discover any fault in him, or if his master should assigned any blame. But I saw none: but the only cause of his fall was his good will and his eagerness. He was now in spirit just as willing and good as when he had stood before his Lord ready to do his will.
 
This is not a description of the fall of Adam or our own falls as we are accustomed to see them. But Julian is not speaking of the way we are accustomed to see them, but is revealing to us the mind of God. Notice that she looked to see if she could discover any fault in the servant or if his master was assigning him any blame. She saw none.

I would like to summarize the attitude that Julian is expressing in my own words; when we fall into sin, we fall into the arms of an infinitely compassionate, forgiving and loving God. We are accustomed to seeing Adam's fall as the prototype of all human sin. And all of our personal sins are simply our ratification of what Adam did to the whole human race. But the fall, as it were, of Jesus Christ into the human condition, becoming a victim for sin takes away in God's eyes the odium, the guilt and the misery which our sins would otherwise bring upon us. And God imputes to us no guilt, but only forgiveness compassion and love. This is the kind of interview with the father that Jesus gives us. And this is why God could say to Julian as a final expression of his wisdom given to the human race and given to you and me individually and personally: "all is well and everything shall be well."

May you be happy,
may you be free.
May you be loving,
May you be loved.

Father William