“The heavens proclaim God’s justice, and all peoples see God’s glory.“ Psalm 97:6
Begin by saying these words as Julian would say them: God delights in me! God delights in me! God delights in me! Julian shows that God loves all who are faithful when they are too busy as well as when they have “time” to be aware of God.
Julian was convinced that you can experience God in whatever you are doing. She knew that prayer is not a complicated process, separate from daily living. Like Hildegard, Julian was creation-centered and saw wholeness in human beings, nature, and God. And like Hildegard she was caught up in mystical prayer and represented the “glory of God fully alive.” Julian had an overwhelming sense of the centrality of God, her maker and keeper, who was her everlasting love, joy, and bliss.
Very little is known about the externals of Julian’s life. But she knows herself in the very intimate relationship of a beloved creature and a loving Creator. In her book, Showings (Revelations of Divine Love) she shared the experiences she had of God. This vibrant woman, Julian, is known only by her powerful words in this book. She was much loved in her day and has become even more beloved in recent decades. Our times are very much like her own.
Julian lived in one of the most calamitous periods in human history. Barbara Tuchman (historian who wrote A Distant Mirror, Knopf, 1978), subtitled her book “the Calamitous Fourteenth Century.” She calls Julian’s age “a violent, tormented, bewildered, suffering, and disintegrating age, a time, as many thought, of Satan triumphant.”
One of the greatest calamities of Julian’s time was the plague of Black Death which killed at least a third of the population of Europe as it swept from South to North in the mid-14th century, reaching Norwich in 1349 when Julian was a child. Two other waves in 1360, when Julian was in her 20’s, killed as many as 50% of Norwich’s people.
At the same time there were problems in the church. These must have affected a woman of faith like Julian with great pain. The papacy was in political, economic, and ecclesial chaos. During the Great Schism (1378-1317) there were multiple popes and three factions in the papacy. In England the Bishop of Norwich engaged in unholy dealings in connection with the Great Schism and the Peasants’ Revolt. Arrogant and a harsh administrator, he was ruthless and merciless in quelling this revolt. He was Julian’s bishop!
How could any one living during her era be “fully alive” and give “glory to God?” Think about the times in which you live. How calamitous is the first part of the 21st century? In what ways do the problems of Julian’s day remind you of the time you are living in right now?
Although Julian was very much aware of all these tensions, she was also a prophet, a loving critic of “Holy Church.” She distinguished between “God’s kingdom on earth” and the evils of the hierarchy. Julian’s vision was never clouded.
Julian, surrounded by death and the many other problems of her day, was immersed in the mystery of suffering. She probably developed what might be called today “a survivor mentality” and prayed to share in the sickness all around her. Her sickbed experience of visions of Jesus in his passion she described in Showings.
Showings is Julian’s reflection on the sixteen revelations or “showings” of God’s love which came to her while she was on her sickbed. In the 86th and final chapter of Showings, Julian summarizes all that she has learned–“that love is our Lord’s meaning.” From learning how much God loved her, Julian realized that God “delighted” in her. She says this over and over again in various ways.
Look back at the “delight” prayer at the beginning of Part 5. Julian’s experience of God’s delight can help you to be aware of how much God loves you. Prayer is not a complicated process separate from daily living. Whatever you may be doing, you can experience God and yourself as you are.
Julian writes in Showings that she saw the figure of the suffering Christ on the crucifix become alive before her eyes. Fourteen other showings followed in rapid succession in a few hours with the sixteenth coming on the following night.
What was Julian’s story before this night? Julian and her mother survived. But who had died? Julian writes so much about motherhood that possibly she was a mother herself. Most women married very early so Julian may have had a husband and children who died of the plague.
After her sick bed experience and the “showings,” Julian became an anchoress and lived in an anchorhold attached to the Church of St. Julian in Norwich. Anchoresses (widows and other women) lived lives of solitude, prayer, and charity. From her cell attached to the church Julian spent the remainder of her life praying and counseling many people from all walks of life.
Julian’s name is taken from this church. She lived (with her cat Isaiah) and prayed in her one or two rooms. One window opened into the church so she could participate in services. The other window opened onto the street, letting her listen to stories of those people who came for solace and spiritual counsel.
Julian wrote Showings in this anchorhold. An overwhelming sense of her lively presence come through. She expressed herself with tremendous vitality and tender intimacy.
If you read Showings, you can come to know Julian intimately as a person who tells an incredible story of God’s revelation of love. Whether because of or in spite of the misery of her time, her theology of “all shall be well” is tremendously optimistic! In every page she is “fully alive.”
Julian revealed through every line of Showings:• that God delights in her;
- that God created all as infinitely good and loves even the smallest things
- that the Lord is the ground of her “beseeching” (praying) and therefore that prayer is the only true stance before a loving and merciful God;
- that God is our Mother;
- that love is the meaning of life in spite of, even because of, sin;
- that “all shall be well” because God loves everyone and all creation.
For a confident, optimistic spirit like Julian, sin was truly a puzzle. There was tension between her perception of a loving God and the fact of sin in the world and in herself. The most extensive discussion of sin can be found in the 13th Showing when Julian asks why, through the great wisdom of God, “the beginning of sin was not prevented” for then “all would have been well” (224).
Christ’s answer is that “sin is necessary” BUT “all shall be well.” He told her that he would “make all things well which are not well and you shall see it.” Because Julian’s was a life of prayer and compassion, her mantra became: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things will be well.”
Julian, aware that her optimism might not set well with her contemporaries, tried to reconcile her understanding of the goodness of God with the medieval Church’s traditional understanding of sin and punishment. She takes refuge in the mysteries of God which are beyond explanation.
In trying to understand the paradox between love and sin, Julian realized that becoming too sorrowful about sin means failure to “recognize God’s exalted, wonderful wisdom, or the power and goodness of the Blessed Trinity” (232). Christ told her to accept this truth in faith and trust, and in the end she would “see, truly, in fullness of joy” (232).
Julian’s message reflects Christian hope and optimism. If the troubled 14th century needed this message, the troubled 21st century needs it as well!
Julian’s view of Creation accounts for her “all shall be well” theology. This surely shows Julian as a “person fully alive” giving “glory to God.”
Julian emphasized the theme of Jesus as Mother in many chapters of Showings (52-64). The Motherhood of God, for Julian, was inclusive rather than exclusive of all other titles. She saw Jesus as a wise mother who watched carefully over all people. Julian described Jesus with many maternal phrases: “our precious Mother Jesus,” “our precious Mother Christ,” “our courteous Mother,” “our tender Mother Jesus,” “our loving Mother,” and, the most frequent, “our true Mother.”
Julian came out of a tradition before her that recognized God as mother. Julian did not cite Biblical sources but scholars have found key quotations to support the image of God as mother, as, for instance, in Isaiah 49:15: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” Or in the New Testament: “How often have I wanted to gather your children together as a mother bird collects her young under her wings…” (Luke 13:34).
Christians need Julian today as a reminder that, no matter what the sin or evil, all will eventually “be well.” A mystic, a mother, and counselor to many people of her day, she gave great glory to God–and continues to do so!
In what ways can you live out Julian’s message of loving God and knowing that God delights in you?