Christ as Creator, reproduced from Plenarium, Augsburg, 1473
Christ as Creator, reproduced
from Plenarium, Augsburg, 1473
n translating Julian of Norwich's Showing of
Love in 1991 from the Syon Abbey manuscript owned by
Westminster Cathedral and now on loan to Westminster Abbey,
her own English words were kept, rather than translating
them into our Latinate forms, her 'oneing' instead of our
'uniting', her 'noughting' instead of our 'negating', her
'endlessness' instead of our 'eternity'. Somehow the Latin
hides their meaning into its foreignness. The English words'
truth, though now so unusual that they seem foreign, are
actually closer to what we mean. Also, Julian's theological
concepts can have a very modern ring. Computers, like brains
and noughts and crosses games, generally simply 'one' and
'nought' their way through problems. Julian's 'oneing' is
one's shaping oneself to that of God, 'noughting' the
opposite of 'oneing', as evil, which therefore does not
exist. Her 'endlessness' is of God, who is all time, but
smaller and smaller bits of time, like death, are of
'noughting'.
There are three versions of Julian's Showing of Love. The first, the Westminster Manuscript, of which excerpts are given here, was written perhaps in 1368 when she was twenty-five. The Long Text, given in the Paris Manuscript and in three Sloane and Stowe Manuscripts in the British Library, presents a text originally written when she was fifty, in 1393, discussing a vision of the Crucifix she had had when she lay, she thought, dying, in 1373. A final version, the Short Text, is given in the British Library Amherst Manuscript, and states it was written when she was still alive in 1413, at seventy, when the Lollards, ancestors to the Quakers, were being burned at the stake. That manuscript also contains Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls , Henry Suso's Horologium Sapientiae and Jan van Ruusbroec's Sparkling Stone (the latter two now transcribed in booklets in the Julian Library Portfolio) amongst other contemplative texts. All of these early Julian manuscripts are connected to Brigittine Syon Abbey. This manuscript was owned by the courageous Lowe family. The last monk to be buried at Syon Abbey at the Reformation was a Lowe. The Lowes in exile continued to be associated with Syon Abbey in exile in the Low Countries and Rouen, women, as well as men, being imprisoned for their recusancy, and a Lowe priest was drawn, hung and quartered at Tyburn for converting five hundred souls to Catholicism. In the nineteenth century Rose Lowe entered Syon Abbey in Lisbon, saving it from extinction under Wellington's deprivations in Portugal and became its Prioress. Bishop James Bramston studied for ordination at the English College, Lisbon. The manuscript then passed from Lowe ownership into his hands, being rebound at this date, and finally to Westminster Cathedral.
Julian thus spent her whole life writing this book. From the age of fifty on she lived as a Solitary, an Anchoress, in an anchorhold at St Julian's Church, Norwich, probably dressed in the black of a Benedictine nun, for she may have earlier been at Carrow Priory, and she gave counsel to troubled people, like Margery Kempe from Lynn. In all these versions, except the last, Julian gives passages from the Bible in her Middle English, from Isaiah, from Jonah, from the Epistles and much else, but she dare not do so in the 1413 version when to own or use John Wyclif' s translation of the Bible into English would have caused one to have been burnt at the stake as a Lollard heretic. Strangely she uses neither Jerome 's Latin Vulgate nor Wyclif's Middle English, the evidence being that she has access to the Hebrew of the Scriptures, likely gained through Cardinal Adam Easton who had taught the Hebrew Scriptures at Oxford and who had translated them into Latin, correcting Jerome's errors. But she is not an elitist scholar. Her last word in her last version is the Lollard term, one's 'even Christian', one's neighbour as one's equal in the eyes of one's Creat or
Julian
begins the Westminster Manuscript by imagining the Virgin
Mary worshipping her Child. The initial {
in the manuscript is illuminated in blue with
red penwork ornamentation, the text written in brownish
ink. It echoes the lovely Advent Antiphon, {
Sapientiae, where the pregnant Virgin
worships and addresses her not yet born child as Wisdom.
Ure gracious & goode Later, Julian speaks of the tender hands of God as our Mother. I have here used a painting by the abused woman painter, Artemisa Gentileschi, of the Virgin and Child.
The manuscript has
drawings of hands in the margin pointing to important parts of
the text. The sections given here in red are so rubricated in
the Paris Manuscript, but not in the Westminster Manuscript.
In other manuscripts these phrases are in engrossed letters,
which in one instance, occurs in the Westminster Manuscript
and which may have been Julian's own practice, perhaps
borrowed from Rabbinical texts, as in the manuscript of Rabbi
David Kimhi , owned by
Cardinal Adam Easton ,
Benedictine from Norwich, who effected Birgitta
of Sweden 's canonization in 1391.
· · ·
Westminster Cathedral Manuscript, Julian of Norwich, Showing of Love
Italian blessed olive leaves , Australian hazel nut
Earth First Seen From Space
And in
this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut , lying in the palm of my hand,
as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked
upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought,
'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus,'It is all that is made.' I marvelled how it might last, for I
thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for
littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts
and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by
the love of God.
In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it. But what is this to me? Truly, the Creator, the Keeper, the Lover. For until I am substantially oned to him, I may never have full rest nor true bliss. That is to say, until I be so fastened to him that there is nothing that is made between my God and me.
This little thing that is made, I thought it might have fallen to nought for littleness. Of this we need to have knowledge that it is like to nought, all things that are made. For to love and have God that is unmade.
For this is the cause why we are not at ease in heart and soul, for we seek rest here, in this thing that is so little where there is no rest, and knowing not our God who is all mighty, all wise and all good. For he is true rest. God will be known, and he likes us to rest in him. For all that is beneath him cannot suffice us. And this is the cause why no soul is rested, until it is noughted of all that is made. And when he wills to be noughted for love, to have him who is all, then he is able to receive spiritual rest.
Also our Lord showed that it is the fullest pleasure to him, that an innocent soul come to him nakedly, plainly and humbly. For this is the natural yearning of the soul by the touching of the Holy Spirit. And by the understanding that I have in this showing,
Westminster Cathedral Manuscript, Julian of Norwich, Showing of Love
♫ After this, I saw God in a point. That is to say in my understanding. But which sight I saw that he is all things. I beheld with advisement, seeing and knowing in that sight, that he does all that is done, be it never so little. And I saw that nothing is done by chance, nor by hazard, but all by the foreseeing of God's wisdom. And if it be chance or fortune in the sight of man, our blindness and our lack of foresight is the cause. Therefore, well I know that in sight of our lord God, there is not chance or happenstance. And therefore it needs behoove me to grant that all things that are done, are well done, because our lord God does all. For in this time the working of Creation was not showed but of our lord God, in Creation, for he is in the midpoint of all things, and he does all.
And I was sure that he does no sin. And here I saw truly that sin is no deed. Also among other showings our good Lord means thus, 'See, I am God. See, I am in all things. See, I do all things. See, I never left off the works of my hand, nor ever shall, without end. See, I lead all things to the end, to which I ordained them, from without beginning, by the same power, wisdom and love, that I made them with. How should then anything be amiss?'
I saw full surely
that he never changes his purpose in any manner of thing,
nor ever shall without end. For there was nothing unknown to
him in his rightful ordering from without beginning. And
therefore all things were set in order before anything was
made, as it should be without end.
· · ·
And
this was shown in these words,'Are
you well paid' . By those other words that Christ said, 'If you are paid, I am paid'. As if he
had said,'It is joy and
liking enough to me, and I ask nothing else of you for my
travail, but that I might pay you' . And it is
this he brought to my mind. The property of a glad giver:
a glad giver takes but little heed of the thing that he
gives, but his desire is in all his intent, to please him
and solace him to whom he gives it. And if the receiver
takes the gift gladly and thankfully, then the courteous
giver sets at nought all his cost and all his travail for
joy and delight that he has, for he has so pleased and
solaced him whom he loves. Plenteously and fully was this
shown.
· · ·
Also
our Lord showed for prayer, in which showing I saw two
conditions in our Lord's meaning. One is right full
prayer. And the other is sure trust. But yet often our
trust is not full, for we are not sure that God hears us,
we think, because of our unworthiness, and because of that
we feel nothing. For we are as barren and as dry often
after our prayer, as we were before. And thus in our
feeling, our folly is the cause of our weakness. For thus
I have felt in myself.
And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind and showed these words and said ,'I am ground of your seeking. First it is my will that you have it, and I make you to will it. How should it then be that you should not have your seeking of it, since I make you to seek it, and you seek it' . And thus is in the first reason of the three that follow, our lord God shows a great comfort as may be, saying in the same words in the first reason. Where he says , 'And you seek it' , there he shows full great pleasure, and endless reward that he will give us for our seeking.
And in the sixth reason there he says, 'How should then this be?'This was said for an impossibility. For it is the most impossible thing that may be that we should seek mercy and grace, and not have it. For of all things that our Lord makes us to seek, himself has ordained it to us from without beginning.
Here may we [see] then that our seeking is not cause of the goodness and grace that he does to us, but his own proper goodness, and that he shows truly in all these sweet words, where he says, 'I am ground of your prayer and of your seeking' . And our Lord wills that this be known of all his lovers on earth. And the more that we know it, the more should we seek it, if it is wisely taken. And so is our Lord's meaning.
Wise seeking is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our lord God himself. He is the first receiver of our prayer, it seems to me, and he takes it right thankfully and highly enjoys it. He sends it up above and sets it in the treasury, where it shall never perish. It is there before God with all his holy company continually received, ever fulfulling our needs. And when we shall achieve our bliss, it shall be given to us for a degree of joy with endless worshipful thanking of him. Full glad and merry is our lord God of our prayer. He looks there after and he would have it. For with his grace it makes us like himself in condition, as we be in nature.
Also he says, 'Pray though you think it not help you' .
Also to prayer belong
thankings. Thanking is a true inward knowing with great
reverence and lovely dread, turning ourself with all our
might into the working that our lord God stirred us to,
enjoying and thanking him inwardly. And sometimes with
plenteousness, it breaks out into voice, and says, 'Good
lord, grant mercy, blessed must you be'.
· · ·
♫
Truth
sees God, and wisdom beholds God, and of these two comes
the third, and that is a marvelous holy delight in God,
which is love. Where truth and wisdom is, truly there is
love and truly coming of them both, and all of God's
making. For God is endless sovereign truth, endless
sovereign wisdom, endless sovereign love unmade.
· · ·
And
furthermore he wills that we know that this dear worthy
soul was preciously knit to him in the making. Which knot
is so subtle and so mighty, that it is oned to God, in
which oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore, he
wills that we know and understand, that all the souls that
shall be saved in heaven without end are knitted in this
kot, and oned in this oneing, and made holy in this
holiness. And for great endless love that God has to all
mankind, he makes no departing in love between the blessed
soul of Christ and the least soul that shall be saved, for
it it is very easy to live and to believe, that the
dwelling of the blessed soul of Christ is full high in the
glorious godhead. And truly as I understand in our Lord's
meaning, where the blessed soul of Christ is, there is the
substance of all the souls that shall be saved by Christ.
Highly ought we to enjoy that our God dwells in our soul, and much more highly we ought to enjoy that our soul dwells in God. And the dwelling place of our soul is in God, which is unmade. A high understanding it is inwardly to see and to know that God which is our maker, dwells in our soul. And a higher understanding it is and more inwardly to see and to know our soul that is made dwells in God in substance, of which substance by God we be that we be.
Also the almighty
truth of the Trinity is our Father. For he made us and keeps
us in him. And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our
Mother, in whom we be all enclosed, and the high goodness of
the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are closed, and he is
in us. All mighty, all wisdom and all goodness; one God, one
Lord and one goodness.
· · ·
God
is nearer to us than our own soul, for he is ground in
whom our soul stands, and he is the means that keeps the
substance and the sensuality together so that it shall
never depart. For our soul sits in God, in true rest, and
our soul stands in God in sure strength, and our soul is
naturally rooted in God, in endless love. And therefore if
we will have knowing of our soul, and communing and
daliance therewith, it is right to seek into our lord God
in whom it is enclosed.
· · ·
Also,
as truly as God is our Father, so as truly God is our
Mother. And that he shows in all and namely in these sweet
words, where he says,'I it am'. That is to say,'I it am, the might and goodness of
Fatherhead; I it am, the wisdom and the kindness of
Motherhood; I it am, the light and the grace, that is all
blessed love; I it am, the Trinity; I it am, the Unity; I
it am, the high sovereign goodness of all manner of
things; I it am, that makes you to love; I it am, that
makes you to long, the endless fullness of all true
desires'.
· · ·
I
understand three manners of beholding of Motherhead in God. The first is
ground of our natural making. The second is taking of our
nature, and there begins the Motherhead of grace. The
third is Motherhead of working and therein is a spreading
forth by the same grace of length and of breadth, of
height and of deepness without end. And all is one love.
· · ·
The
mother's service is nearest, readiest and surest. It is
nearest, for it is natural, readiest, for it is most of
love, and surest for it is of truth. This office might nor
could anyone ever do to the full, but Christ Jesus, God
and Man alone. We know well that all our mothers bear us
with pain and for dying. But our true Mother Jesus, he
alone bears us to joy and to bliss, and endless living,
blessed must he be.
Thus he sustains us within him in love. And travailed into the full time that he would suffer the sharpest throes and the most grievous pains that ever were or ever shall be, and died at the last and when he had done and so borne us to bliss, yet might not all this be enough to his marvellous love. And that showed he in these high overpassing words of love, 'If I might suffer more I would suffer more' .
He might no more
die, but he would not cease working. Therefore then he needs
must feed us, for the dear worthy love of Motherhead has
made him debtor to us. The mother may give her child to suck
her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus, he may feed us with
himself, and does full courteously and full tenderly with
the blessed sacrament of his body and blood that is precious
food of very life. And with all the sweet sacraments he
sustains us well mercifully and graciously.
.·
· ·
The
sweet gracious hands of our
Mother are ready and diligent about us. For he in all this
working uses the true office of a kind nurse, that has
nothing else to do, but to attend about the salvation of
her child. It is the office of our lord Jesus Christ to
save us. It is his worship to do it, and it is his will,
we know it. For he wills that we love him sweetly and
trust in him meekly and strongly. And this he showed in
these gracious words, I keep you most surely'. Furthermore
a natural child despairs not of the mother's love, and
naturally the child presumes not of itself, naturally the
child loves the mother, each of them loves the other.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Madonna and Child
Also I had great desire and longing for God's gift to be delivered of this world and of this life. For often I beheld the woe that is here in this life, and the weal and the blessed being that is in heaven, and I thought sometimes, though there had been no pain in this life but the absence of our lord God, it was more than I might bear, and this made me to mourn and anxiously yearn. And also my own wretchedness, sloth and irksomeness helped thereto, so that I wanted not to live and to travail as it fell out to me to do. And to all our courteous lord God answered for comfort and patience, and said these words, 'Suddenly you shall be taken from all your pain, and from all your sickness, from all your illness and from all your woe, and you shall come up above, and you shall have me to your pay and reward, and you shall be filled with joy and with bliss, and you shall never more have any manner of pain, neither any manner of sickness, nor manner of misliking, nor no wanting of will, but be ever in joy and bliss without end. What should it then grieve you to suffer a while, since it is my will and my worship' .
It is God's will that we set the point of our thought in this blessed beholding, as often as we may, and as long.
LIMITED EDITION
JULIAN OF NORWICH
SHOWING OF LOVE
WESTMINSTER TEXT
Two hundred and fifty numbered,
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Indices to Umiltà
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JULIAN OF NORWICH, HER SHOWING OF LOVE
AND ITS CONTEXTS ©1997-2024 JULIA
BOLTON HOLLOWAY || JULIAN OF NORWICH || SHOWING OF
LOVE || HER TEXTS ||
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