In this episode, Julian of Norwich is drawn into the radiant joy of Christ—the joy He takes in His Blessed Mother, and the glory revealed in His glorified Face. In the Eleventh Shewing, Christ lovingly invites Julian to “see her”—to behold the Virgin Mary as He does, with delight and reverence. Through Julian’s vision, we glimpse the profound place of Mary in Christ’s heart and in the life of every Christian. In the Twelfth Shewing, Julian is lifted to contemplate the joy of Heaven: the Beatific Vision, where the saints behold the Face of Christ and are fully seen, fully known, and fully loved. Drawing from Julian’s text, Scripture, the Catechism, and the wisdom of the saints, this episode opens the mystery of divine joy that begins in Christ’s Passion and culminates in eternal glory.

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters XXV-XXVI, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

“AND with this same cheer of mirth and joy our good Lord looked down on the right side and brought to my mind where our Lady stood in the time of His Passion; and said: Wilt thou see her?” (Ch. 25)

“And for the high, marvellous, singular love that He hath to this sweet Maiden, His blessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary, He shewed her highly rejoicing… as if He said: Wilt thou see how I love her, that thou mightest joy with me in the love that I have in her and she in me?” (Ch. 25)

“For after Himself she is the most blissful sight. But hereof am I not learned to long to see her bodily presence while I am here, but the virtues of her blessed soul: her truth, her wisdom, her charity; whereby I may learn to know myself and reverently dread my God.” (Ch. 25)

“And Jesus in that word shewed me ghostly sight of her: right as I had seen her afore little and simple, so He shewed her then high and noble and glorious, and pleasing to Him above all creatures.” (Ch. 25)

“AND after this the Lord shewed Himself more glorified, as to my sight, than I saw Him before wherein I was learned to my understanding that it shall be thus in Heaven without end to all that shall come there. For the change of His blessed Countenance shall be the joy of the blessed without end that see Him.” (Ch. 26)

“This blessed Countenance of the Godhead fulfilleth the joy of the saints in Heaven; which blessed Countenance of the Lord is open to be seen, and shall be seen evermore of the blessed, which for His homely loving behold Him gladly; evermore enjoying Him, that is, God, their Maker and their Keeper, their Lover and their Bliss.” (Ch. 26)

“Lift up thine heart and behold thy Lord with eyes of love, for He hangeth there for thee… His arms stretched wide to embrace thee, His side open to receive thee, His blood flowing to cleanse thee.”

“The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” (Munificentissimus Deus, §44, Pope Pius XII, 1950)

“If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer: ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.’ I must admit — this prayer has never failed me.” (St. Teresa of Calcutta – Come Be My Light, 2007, p. 197)

“She was made a book in which the Word was written, by the power of the eternal Father, and the wisdom of the Son, and the mercy of the Holy Spirit.” (St. Catherine of Siena – Dialogue, Ch. 116; trans. Suzanne Noffke, O.P., 1980)

“From the moment I first conceived Him in my womb, I never ceased carrying Him in my heart. When I gave birth to Him, I felt as though half my heart had left me. And when He suffered the Passion, His pain became my pain, because His heart was my heart. And when He died, it felt to me as though my own heart were dying.” (St. Bridget of Sweden – Revelations, Book 1, Ch. 10; trans. Denis Searby, Oxford University Press, 2006)

CCC 964: “Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood… joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart.”

CCC 1028:“Because of his transcendent holiness, God cannot be seen as he is unless he himself opens up his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. This contemplation of God in his heavenly glory is called ‘the beatific vision’

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

“You show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11, RSV)

Lord Jesus Christ,

The post Ep 8 – The Eleventh and Twelfth Shewings – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

In Episode 7 we journey with Julian of Norwich into the mystery of Christ’s joy in His Passion. Rather than sorrow alone, Julian sees the Redeemer rejoicing in His self-offering, delighting to give Himself for the salvation of souls. She is shown the threefold joy of the Trinity, where the Father is pleased, the Son is crowned, and the Holy Spirit is satisfied. Then Julian is led through the wound in Christ’s side into the depths of His Heart—a resting place “large enough for all mankind.” Drawing on Scripture, the Catechism, and the mystical tradition of the Church, this episode opens the mystery of divine charity that transforms suffering into eternal joy, and invites the soul into the inexhaustible mercy of the pierced Heart of Jesus.

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters XXXII-XXIV, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

“THEN said our good Lord Jesus Christ: Art thou well pleased that I suffered for thee? I said: Yea, good Lord, I thank Thee; Yea, good Lord, blessed mayst Thou be. Then said Jesus, our kind Lord: If thou art pleased, I am pleased: it is a joy, a bliss, an endless satisfying to me that ever suffered I Passion for thee; and if I might suffer more, I would suffer more.” (Ch. 22)

“In this feeling my understanding was lifted up into Heaven, and there I saw three heavens: of which sight I marvelled greatly. And though I see three heavens—and all in the blessed manhood of Christ—none is more, none is less, none is higher, none is lower, but [they are] even-like in bliss.” (Ch. 22)

“For the First Heaven, Christ shewed me His Father; in no bodily likeness, but in His property and in His working. That is to say, I saw in Christ that the Father is.” (Ch. 22)

“The working of the Father is this, that He giveth meed to His Son Jesus Christ. This gift and this meed is so blissful to Jesus that His Father might have given Him no meed that might have pleased Him better.” (Ch. 22)

“Wherefore we be not only His by His buying, but also by the courteous gift of His Father we be His bliss, we be His meed, we be His worship, we be His crown.” (Ch. 22)

“And in these words: If that I might suffer more, I would suffer more,—I saw in truth that as often as He might die, so often He would, and love should never let Him have rest till He had done it.” (Ch. 22)

“For though the sweet manhood of Christ might suffer but once, the goodness in Him may never cease of proffer: every day He is ready to the same, if it might be.” (Ch. 22)

“This deed, and this work about our salvation, was ordained as well as God might ordain it. And here I saw a Full Bliss in Christ: for His bliss should not have been full, if it might any better have been done.” (Ch. 22)

“And in these three words: It is a Joy, and a Bliss, and an endless satisfying to Me,—were shewed three heavens, as thus: for the joy, I understood the pleasure of the Father; and for the bliss, the worship of the Son; and for the endless satisfying, the Holy Ghost.” (Ch. 23)

“And these three are one bliss: and one meed: and one endless fulfilling: and throughout all, I saw bliss in the end: in which bliss He is grounded, and rooted; and He is our very Meed.” (Ch. 23)

“For I saw truly that our substance is in God, and also I saw that in our sensuality God is: for in the self-same point that our Soul is made sensual, in the self-same point is the City of God ordained to Him from without beginning; into which seat He cometh, and never shall remove it.” (Ch. 23)

“And all this bliss I saw in the bodily sight, in the showing of the Passion of Christ.” (Ch. 23)

“THEN with a glad cheer our Lord looked unto His Side and beheld, rejoicing. With His sweet looking He led forth the understanding of His creature by the same wound into His Side within. And then he shewed a fair, delectable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be saved to rest in peace and in love.” (Ch. 24)

“And therewith He brought to mind His dearworthy blood and precious water which he let pour all out for love. And with the sweet beholding He shewed His blessed heart even cloven in two.” (Ch. 24)

“And with this sweet enjoying, He shewed unto mine understanding, in part, the blessed Godhead… the endless Love that was without beginning, and is, and shall be ever.” (Ch. 24)

“And with this our good Lord said full blissfully: Lo, how that I loved thee, as if He had said: My darling, behold and see thy Lord, thy God that is thy Maker and thine endless joy… and for my love rejoice [thou] with me.” (Ch. 24)

“Behold and see that I loved thee so much ere I died for thee that I would die for thee; and now I have died for thee and suffered willingly that which I may. And now is all my bitter pain and all my hard travail turned to endless joy and bliss to me and to thee.” (Ch. 24)

“How should it now be that thou shouldst anything pray that pleaseth me but that I should full gladly grant it thee? For my pleasing is thy holiness and thine endless joy and bliss with me.” (Ch. 24)

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”

“Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day.”

“…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”

“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water”

“He was despised and rejected by men;

 Surely he has borne our griefs

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

“The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the ‘one mediator between God and men.’ But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, ‘the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery’ is offered to all men.” (CCC 618)

“Jesus revealed that God is ‘Father’ in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son.” (CCC 240)

“By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant… He makes himself an offering for sin… and shall make many to be accounted righteous.” (CCC 615)

“The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice… “And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner… this sacrifice is truly propitiatory.” (CCC 1367)

“The Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature.’” (CCC 460)

“Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us.” (CCC 521)

“For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.'”172 As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.” (CCC 766)

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. (CCC 1)

Pope Benedict XVI:

“She understood the core message of God’s love at a time when, even in theology, some currents emphasized God’s justice and harsh judgment more than his mercy.”

St. Catherine of Siena:

“Sweet Jesus, I contemplate your open side as a hidden cellar filled with wine. I enter into it and see the secret of your heart.” (Letter T328/G148, to Fr. Bartolomeo Dominici)

“Do you want to be safe? Then hide yourself within this side. His open side is full of delight and sweetness. It is an open storehouse that souls will never want to leave.” (Letter T127/G59, to a religious)

Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen.

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 7 – The 9th and 10th Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

In Episode 6, In this powerful episode, we enter the Eighth Revelation of Julian of Norwich—a devastating yet holy vision of Christ’s dying. Julian beholds the gradual drying of Christ’s body, a slow agony revealing the depths of divine love. She reflects on His thirst—both physical and spiritual—and joins in His suffering through a profound union of compassion. Drawing on Isaiah, the Gospel of John, the Catechism, and the witness of mystics like St. Bridget and St. Teresa of Calcutta, this episode explores the mystery of redemptive suffering. Julian’s witness offers not only theological depth but an invitation to gaze upon the Crucified with love and trust.

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters XVI-XXI, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

“I saw His sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with pale dying. And later, more pale, dead, languoring; and then turned more dead unto blue; and then more brown-blue, as the flesh turned more deeply dead…” (Ch. 16)

“This long pining seemed to me as if He had been seven nights dead, dying, at the point of outpassing away, suffering the last pain. And when I said it seemed to me as if He had been seven night dead, it meaneth that the sweet body was so discoloured, so dry, so shrunken, so deathly, and so piteous, as if He had been seven night dead, continually dying. And methought the drying of Christ’s flesh was the most pain, and the last, of His Passion.” (Ch. 16)

“AND in this dying was brought to my mind the words of Christ: I thirst.

“I saw four manner of dryings: the first was bloodlessness; the second was pain following after; the third, hanging up in the air, as men hang a cloth to dry; the fourth, that the bodily Kind asked liquid and there was no manner of comfort ministered to Him in all His woe and distress. Ah! hard and grievous was his pain, but much more hard and grievous it was when the moisture failed and began to dry thus, shrivelling.” (Ch. 17)

“These were the pains that shewed in the blessed head: the first wrought to the dying, while it had moisture; and that other, slow, with shrinking drying, [and] with blowing of the wind from without, that dried and pained Him with cold more than mine heart can think.”(Ch. 17)

“I thought: Is any pain like this? And I was answered in my reason: Hell is another pain: for there is despair. But of all pains that lead to salvation this is the most pain, to see thy Love suffer. How might any pain be more to me than to see Him that is all my life, all my bliss, and all my joy, suffer? Here felt I soothfastly that I loved Christ so much above myself that there was no pain that might be suffered like to that sorrow that I had to [see] Him in pain.”(Ch. 17)

“And after this, a wond [wound] was shewed in His side, right as it was shewed afore: which He shewed unto me in the same manner as I saw afore, and therewith He brought to mind the dearworthy blood and water which He suffered to be shed out of that same side. … And well I wist that it was He that shewed it. … And in the same shewing suddenly the Trinity filled my heart full of the greatest joy; and I understood that it shall be so in Heaven without end to all that shall come there.” (Ch. 18)

“HERE I saw a part of the compassion of our Lady, Saint Mary: for Christ and she were so oned in love that the greatness of her loving was cause of the greatness of her pain. For in this [Shewing] I saw a Substance of Nature’s Love, continued by Grace, that creatures have to Him: which Kind Love was most fully shewed in His sweet Mother, and overpassing; for so much as she loved Him more than all other, her pains passed all other. For ever the higher, the mightier, the sweeter that the love be, the more sorrow it is to the lover to see that body in pain that is loved.” (Ch. 19)

“Here saw I a great oneing betwixt Christ and us, to mine understanding: for when He was in pain, we were in pain.

“Thus was I learned to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time.”(Ch 19)

“Then had I a proffer in my reason, as if it had been friendly said to me: Look up to Heaven to His Father. And then saw I well, with the faith that I felt, that there was nothing betwixt the Cross and Heaven that might have harmed me… I answered inwardly with all the might of my soul, and said: Nay; I may not: for Thou art my Heaven. For I would liever have been in that pain till Doomsday than to come to Heaven otherwise than by Him.” (Ch 19)

“The outward part is our deadly fleshhood, which is now in pain and woe, and shall be, in this life: whereof I felt much in this time; and that part it was that repented. The inward part is an high, blissful life, which is all in peace and in love: and this was more inwardly felt; and this part is [that] in which mightily, wisely and with steadfast will I chose Jesus to my Heaven.”(Ch 19)

“And for every man’s sin that shall be saved He suffered: and every man’s sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Kindness and love. (For in as much as our Lady sorrowed for His pains, in so much He suffered sorrow for her sorrow;—and more, in as greatly as the sweet manhood of Him was worthier in Kind.) For as long as He was passible He suffered for us and sorrowed for us; and now He is uprisen and no more passible, yet He suffereth with us.”(Ch 20)

“And I, beholding all this by His grace, saw that the Love of Him was so strong which He hath to our soul that willingly He chose it with great desire, and mildly He suffered it with well-pleasing.”(Ch 20)

“For the soul that beholdeth it thus, when it is touched by grace, it shall verily see that the pains of Christ’s Passion pass all pains: [all pains] that is to say, which shall be turned into everlasting, o’erpassing joys by the virtue of Christ’s Passion.”(Ch 20)

“It is God’s will, as to mine understanding, that we have Three Manners of Beholding His blessed Passion. The First is: the hard Pain that He suffered,—[beholding it] with contrition and compassion.”(Ch 21)

“And I looked for the departing with all my might, and thought to have seen the body all dead; but I saw Him not so. And right in the same time that methought, by the seeming, the life might no longer last… suddenly (I beholding in the same Cross), He changed [the look of] His blessed Countenance. The changing of His blessed Countenance changed mine, and I was as glad and merry as it was possible. Then brought our Lord merrily to my mind: Where is now any point of the pain, or of thy grief? And I was full merry.”(Ch 21)

“And I understood that we be now, in our Lord’s meaning, in His Cross with Him in His pains and His Passion, dying; and we, willingly abiding in the same Cross with His help and His grace unto the last point, suddenly He shall change His Cheer to us, and we shall be with Him in Heaven.”(Ch 21)

“The harder our pains have been with Him in His Cross, the more shall our worship be with Him in His Kingdom.”Ch 21)

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”

“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water”

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God… For we know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now”

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us”

“He was despised and rejected by men;

 Surely he has borne our griefs

Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”111 It is in Christ’s Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth “the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe” (CCC 272)

“The Church was born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. ‘The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.’” (CCC 766)

“Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the Cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan… enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering.” (CCC 964)

“By his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification… and it brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s brethren” (CCC 654).

“The desire for happiness is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to himself, for he alone can fulfill it.” (CCC 1718)

“The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the ‘one mediator between God and men’ (1 Tim 2:5). But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery is offered to all men.” (CCC 618)

“By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.” (CCC 1505)

Lord Jesus Christ,

You were pierced, dried, and drained for our healing.

Give us the grace to remain near to You,

May Your wounds be our refuge,

Amen.

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 6 – The 8th Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

In Episode 5, we explore Julian of Norwich’s Sixth and Seventh Shewings, where she is shown the eternal joy that awaits those who serve God in love, and the mysterious rhythm of spiritual consolation and desolation. Julian reveals that no act of agape love is forgotten, and even our hidden sacrifices are honored by the Lord with lasting joy. She also experiences the rise and fall of spiritual feelings, learning that God remains constant in both peace and pain. Her revelations echo truths later taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola: that spiritual desolation, while permitted, is never without purpose. Through it all, Julian teaches us to remain rooted in God’s unchanging love—trusting that His presence holds us through every joy and trial.

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters XIV-XV, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

“After this our good Lord said: I thank thee for thy travail, and especially for thy youth. And in this [Shewing] mine understanding was lifted up into Heaven where I saw our Lord as a lord in his own house, which hath called all his dearworthy servants and friends to a stately feast. Then I saw the Lord take no place in His own house, but I saw Him royally reign in His house, fulfilling it with joy and mirth, Himself endlessly to gladden and to solace His dearworthy friends, full homely and full courteously, with marvellous melody of endless love, in His own fair blessed Countenance. Which glorious Countenance of the Godhead fulfilleth the Heavens with joy and bliss.” (Ch. 14)

“God shewed three degrees of bliss that every soul shall have in Heaven that willingly hath served God in any degree in earth. The first is the worshipful thanks of our Lord God that he shall receive when he is delivered of pain. This thanking is so high and so worshipful that the soul thinketh it filleth him though there were no more. For methought that all the pain and travail that might be suffered by all living men might not deserve the worshipful thanks that one man shall have that willingly hath served God. The second is that all the blessed creatures that are in Heaven shall see that worshipful thanking, and He maketh his service known to all that are in Heaven… The third is, that as new and as gladdening as it is received in that time, right so shall it last without end.” (Ch. 14)

“And I saw that homely and sweetly was this shewed, and that the age of every man shall be [made] known in Heaven, and [he] shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time. And specially the age of them that willingly and freely offer their youth unto God, passingly is rewarded and wonderfully is thanked.

For I saw that whene’er what time a man or woman is truly turned to God,—for one day’s service and for his endless will he shall have all these three degrees of bliss. And the more the loving soul seeth this courtesy of God, the liefer he is to serve him all the days of his life.” (Ch. 14)

“AND after this He shewed a sovereign ghostly pleasance in my soul. I was fulfilled with the everlasting sureness, mightily sustained without any painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was in all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should have grieved me.

This lasted but a while, and I was turned and left to myself in heaviness, and weariness of my life, and irksomeness of myself, that scarcely I could have patience to live. There was no comfort nor none ease to me but faith, hope, and charity; and these I had in truth, but little in feeling.” (Ch. 15)

“And anon after this our blessed Lord gave me again the comfort and the rest in soul, in satisfying and sureness so blissful and so mighty that no dread, no sorrow, no pain bodily that might be suffered should have distressed me. And then the pain shewed again to my feeling, and then the joy and the pleasing, and now that one, and now that other, divers times—I suppose about twenty times. And in the time of joy I might have said with Saint Paul: Nothing shall dispart me from the charity of Christ; and in the pain I might have said with Peter: Lord, save me: I perish!” (Ch. 15)

“This Vision was shewed me, according to mine understanding, [for] that it is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise: sometime to be in comfort, and sometime to fail and to be left to themselves. God willeth that we know that He keepeth us even alike secure in woe and in weal. And for profit of man’s soul, a man is sometime left to himself; although sin is not always the cause: for in this time I sinned not wherefore I should be left to myself—for it was so sudden. Also I deserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely our Lord giveth when He will; and suffereth us [to be] in woe sometime. And both is one love.” (Ch. 15)

“For it is God’s will that we hold us in comfort with all our might: for bliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be brought to nought for them that shall be saved. And therefore it is not God’s will that we follow the feelings of pain in sorrow and mourning for them, but that we suddenly pass over, and hold us in endless enjoyment.” (Ch. 15)

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ.”

“..he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.””

“In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer as a simple psychological activity, others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void. Still others reduce prayer to ritual words and postures. Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they ‘don’t have the time.’ Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.” (CCC 2726)

“Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called ‘mystical’ because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments… God calls us all to this intimate union with Him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some” (CCC 2014).

“We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God… in every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere to the end” (CCC 1821).

“By His death, Christ liberates us from sin; by His Resurrection, He opens the way to new life” (CCC 654).

O Lord of unchanging love,

When we are weary, hold us.

Wrap us in Your homely loving,

Amen.

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 5 – The 6th and 7th Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters XII-XIII, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

“For in that same time that I saw this bodily sight, our Lord shewed me a spiritual sight of His homely loving. I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable to our help. He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all encloseth us, for tender love.” (Ch. XII)

“And after this I saw, beholding, the body plenteously bleeding in seeming of the Scourging, as thus:—The fair skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh with sharp smiting all about the sweet body. So plenteously the hot blood ran out that there was neither seen skin nor wound, but as it were all blood…” (Ch. XII)

“The dearworthy blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as verily as it is most precious, so verily it is most plenteous. Behold and see! The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood descended down into Hell and burst her bands and delivered all that were there which belonged to the Court of Heaven. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood overfloweth all Earth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin, which be of goodwill, have been, and shall be. The precious plenty of His dearworthy blood ascended up into Heaven to the blessed body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is in Him, bleeding and praying for us to the Father,—and is, and shall be as long as it needeth;—and ever shall be as long as it needeth. And evermore it floweth in all Heavens enjoying the salvation of all mankind.” (Ch. XII)

“After this, ere God shewed any words, He suffered me for a convenient time to give heed unto Him and all that I had seen, and all intellect that was therein, as the simplicity of the soul might take it. Then He, without voice and opening of lips, formed in my soul these words: ‘Herewith is the Fiend overcome.’ These words said our Lord, meaning His blessed Passion as He shewed it afore.” (Ch. XIII)

“On this shewed our Lord that the Passion of Him is the overcoming of the Fiend. God shewed that the Fiend hath now the same malice that he had afore the Incarnation. And as sore he travaileth, and as continually he seeth that all souls of salvation escape him, worshipfully, by the virtue of Christ’s precious Passion. And that is his sorrow, and full evil is he ashamed: for all that God suffereth him to do turneth [for] us to joy and [for] him to shame and woe. And he hath as much sorrow when God giveth him leave to work, as when he worketh not: and that is for that he may never do as ill as he would: for his might is all taken into God’s hand.” (Ch. XIII)

But in God there may be no wrath, as to my sight: for our good Lord endlessly hath regard to His own worship and to the profit of all that shall be saved. With might and right He withstandeth the Reproved… Also I saw our Lord scorn his malice and set at nought his unmight; and He willeth that we do so. For this sight I laughed mightily, and that made them to laugh that were about me… I thought that I would that all mine even-Christians had seen as I saw, and then would they all laugh with me.” (Ch. XIII)

“But I saw not Christ laugh. For I understood that we may laugh in comforting of ourselves and joying in God for that the devil is overcome. And when I saw Him scorn his malice, it was by leading of mine understanding into our Lord: that is to say, it was an inward shewing of verity, without changing of look.”(Ch. XIII)

“I see three things: I see game, in that the Fiend is overcome; I see scorn, in that God scorneth him, and he shall be scorned; and I see earnest, in that he is overcome by the blissful Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ that was done in full earnest and with sober travail.” (Ch. XIII)

When I said, he is scorned,—I meant that God scorneth him, that is to say, because He seeth him now as he shall do without end. For in this [word] God shewed that the Fiend is condemned. And this meant I when I said: he shall be scorned: [he shall be scorned] at Doomsday, generally of all that shall be saved, to whose consolation he hath great ill-will.44 For then he shall see that all the woe and tribulation that he hath done to them shall be turned to increase of their joy, without end; and all the pain and tribulation that he would have brought them to shall endlessly go with him to hell.(Chap XIII)

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ”

“He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge”

“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him.”

“By his Passion and death on the Cross, Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion” (CCC 1505).

“God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end” (CCC 1037).

“The desire for God is written in the human heart… and God never ceases to draw man to Himself” (CCC 27).

“Nothing occurs that God cannot turn toward the good.”

(CCC 634)

“The Last Judgment will reveal…the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which His Providence led everything towards its final end.” (CCC 1040)

Closing Prayer (inspired by the Fourth and Fifth Shewings)

Lord Jesus Christ,

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 4 – The 4th and 5th Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters X-XI, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

The Blood from the Crown — A Vision of Love in Suffering

“AND after this I saw with bodily sight in the face of the crucifix that hung before me, on the which I gazed continually, a part of His Passion: despite, spitting and sullying, and buffetting, and many languoring pains, more than I can tell, and often changing of colour. And one time I saw half the face, beginning at the ear, over-gone with dry blood till it covered to the mid-face. And after that the other half [was] covered on the same wise, the whiles in this [first] part [it vanished] even as it came.”  (Ch. X)

“It is God’s will that we seek Him, to the beholding of Him, for by that He shall shew us Himself of His special grace when He will. And how a soul shall have Him in its beholding, He shall teach Himself: and that is most worship to Him and profit to thyself, and [the soul thus] most receiveth of meekness and virtues with the grace and leading of the Holy Ghost. For a soul that only fasteneth it[self] on to God with very trust, either by seeking or in beholding, it is the most worship that it may do to Him, as to my sight.” (Ch. X)

“These are two workings that may be seen in this Vision: the one is seeking, the other is beholding. The seeking is common,—that every soul may have with His grace,—and ought to have that discretion and teaching of the Holy Church.” (Ch. X)

It is God’s will that we have three things in our seeking:

For it is His will that we know that He shall appear suddenly and blissfully to all that love Him.

For His working is privy, and He willeth to be perceived; and His appearing shall be swiftly sudden; and He willeth to be trusted. For He is full gracious and homely: Blessed may He be!” (Ch. X)

“And after this I saw God in a Point, that is to say, in mine understanding,—by which sight I saw that He is in all things.” (Ch. XI)

“I beheld and considered, seeing and knowing in sight, with a soft dread, and thought: What is sin? For I saw truly that God doeth all-thing, be it never so little. And I saw truly that nothing is done by hap nor by adventure, but all things by the foreseeing wisdom of God: if it be hap or adventure in the sight of man, our blindness and our unforesight is the cause. For the things that are in the foreseeing wisdom of God from without beginning, (which rightfully and worshipfully and continually He leadeth to the best end,) as they come about fall to us suddenly, ourselves unwitting; and thus by our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps and adventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.” (Ch. XI)

“For in this time the working of creatures was not shewed, but [the working] of our Lord God in the creature: for He is in the Mid-point of all thing, and all He doeth. And I was certain He doeth no sin. And here I saw verily that sin is no deed: for in all this was not sin shewed. And I would no longer marvel in this, but beheld our Lord, what He would shew. And thus, as much as it might be for the time, the rightfulness of God’s working was shewed to the soul.” (Ch. XI)

“But in another time He gave a Shewing for the beholding of sin nakedly, as I shall tell: where He useth working of mercy and grace.

For a man beholdeth some deeds well done and some deeds evil, but our Lord beholdeth them not so: for as all that hath being in nature is of Godly making, so is all that is done, in property of God’s doing.

“For He made all things in fulness of goodness, and therefore the blessed Trinity is ever full pleased in all His works.

And all this shewed He full blissfully, signifying thus: See! I am God: see! I am in all thing: see! I do all thing: see! I lift never mine hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end: see! I lead all thing to the end I ordained it to from without beginning, by the same Might, Wisdom and Love whereby I made it. How should any thing be amiss?

Thus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul examined in this Vision. Then saw I soothly that me behoved, of need, to assent, with great reverence enjoying in God.” (Chap XI)

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“Let it be done unto me according to thy word”

“By his Passion and death on the Cross, Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion” (CCC 1505).

“Faith is a personal act—the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals Himself” (CCC 166).

“Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus… It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty” (CCC 2715).

“The desire for God is written in the human heart… and God never ceases to draw man to Himself” (CCC 27).

The Church teaches that God can permit evil in His providence—not because He wills it directly, but because He respects our freedom and knows how to draw good from it (cf. CCC 311).

“God created everything for man… but man is created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to Him” (CCC 358).

Even when man disobeys, God remains faithful and draws good from sin (cf. CCC 410–412).

“Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created ‘in a state of journeying’ toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained” (CCC 302).

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 3 – The 2nd and 3rd Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Summary:

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

From Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, Chapters IV–VII, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition).

The Blood from the Crown — A Vision of Love in Suffering

“And in this suddenly I saw the red blood trickle down from under the garland, hot and freshly and right plenteously, as it were in the time of His Passion when the garland of thorns was pressed on His blessed head. It was as though He had just been crowned, and it seemed to me that He was still bleeding now—as if it had never ceased, and would never cease—until all creation is healed by that love.” (Ch. IV)

The Trinity — Love Without Beginning or End

“And in the same Shewing suddenly the Trinity fulfilled my heart most of joy. And so I understood it shall be in heaven without end to all that shall come there. For the Trinity is God: God is the Trinity; the Trinity is our Maker and Keeper, the Trinity is our everlasting love and everlasting joy and bliss, by our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ch. IV)

“In this Shewing He brought our blessed Lady to my understanding. I saw her ghostly, in bodily likeness: a simple maid and a meek, young of age and little waxen above a child, in the stature that she was when she conceived. Also God shewed in part the wisdom and the truth of her soul: wherein I understood the reverent beholding in which she beheld her God and Maker, marvelling with great reverence that He would be born of her that was a simple creature of His making… She is more than all that God made beneath her in worthiness and grace; for above her is nothing that is made but the blessed Manhood of Christ.” (Ch. IV)

“And [it was] to learn us this, as to mine understanding, [that] our Lord God shewed our Lady Saint Mary in the same time: that is to say, the high Wisdom and Truth she had in beholding of her Maker so great, so holy, so mighty, and so good. This greatness and this nobleness of the beholding of God fulfilled her with reverent dread, and withal she saw herself so little and so low, so simple and so poor, in regard of her Lord God, that this reverent dread fulfilled her with meekness. And thus, by this ground [of meekness] she was fulfilled with grace and with all manner of virtues, and overpasseth all creatures.” (Ch. VII)

“Also in this He shewed me a little thing, the quantity of an hazel-nut, in the palm of my hand; and it was as round as a ball. I looked thereupon with 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 methought it might suddenly have fallen to naught for little[ness]. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasteth, and ever shall [last] for that God loveth it. And so All-thing hath the Being by the love of God.”

“In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it.”

“It needeth us to have knowing of the littleness of creatures and to hold as nought all-thing that is made, for to love and have God that is unmade. For this is the cause why we be not all in ease of heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little, wherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty, All-wise, All-good. For He is the Very Rest.”

“God willeth to be known, and it pleaseth Him that we rest in Him; for all that is beneath Him sufficeth not us. And this is the cause why that no soul is rested till it is made nought as to all things that are made. When it is willingly made nought, for love, to have Him that is all, then is it able to receive spiritual rest.”

“God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself: for Thou art enough to me, and I may nothing ask that is less that may be full worship to Thee; and if I ask anything that is less, ever me wanteth,—but only in Thee I have all.”

“For the Goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the lowest part of our need. It quickeneth our soul and bringeth it on life, and maketh it for to waxen in grace and virtue. It is nearest in nature; and readiest in grace: for it is the same grace that the soul seeketh, and ever shall seek till we know verily that He hath us all in Himself enclosed.”

“We use for lack of understanding and knowing of Love, to take many means [whereby to beseech Him]… Then saw I truly that it is more worship to God, and more very delight, that we faithfully pray to Himself of His Goodness and cleave thereunto by His Grace, with true understanding, and steadfast by love, than if we took all the means that heart can think.”

“We pray to God for His holy flesh and His precious blood, His holy Passion, His dearworthy death and wounds… and all the help we have of [His Mother] is of His Goodness… the dearworthy love and endless friendship that we have of them, it is of His Goodness.”

“As the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed.”

“For truly our Lover desireth that our soul cleave to Him with all its might, and that we be evermore cleaving to His Goodness. For of all things that heart may think, this pleaseth most God, and soonest speedeth the soul.”

(Translations used: Revised Standard Version [RSV] )

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together”

“”If you knew the gift of God!”7 The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.”

Lord God,

Help us to find our rest not in things that fade,

May we come before You simply and plainly,

Amen.

© Discerning Hearts. All rights reserved.

The post Ep 2 – The First Shewing – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.

Join Kris McGregor as she leads a journey through the work of Julian of Norwich—14th-century anchoress, mystic, and the first known woman to write a book in English—who offers a voice of hope, humility, and deep intimacy with God.

This episode introduces her life and thought through the lens of her famous Sixteen Shewings, especially her bold desire to receive “three wounds”: contrition, compassion, and longing for God. We examine her relevance in our own anxious times and why the Church has affirmed her as a trustworthy guide, citing her even in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§313).

For other episodes in this series visit: All Shall Be Well: A Journey Through Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love with Kris McGregor

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Long Text, trans. Grace Warrack, Methuen & Co., 1901 (PDF edition)

Opening Quote (Ch. XXVII):

“But Jesus, that in this vision informed me of all that is needful to me, answered with these words and said: ‘Sin is behovely, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’”

On her three desires (Ch. III):

“And when I was thirty years old and a half, God sent me a bodily sickness in which I lay three days and three nights; and on the fourth night I thought to die. And then I desired to have all my pain and all my sickness for God’s glory, and to feel the Passion of Christ in my body as far as nature would suffer it. And I desired to receive three wounds in my life—that is to say: the wound of contrition, the wound of compassion, and the wound of longing with my will for God.”

On humility and “even-Christians” (Ch. IX):

“And thus I saw and understood that He is everything that is good and comforting to our help. He is our clothing who wraps and enfolds us for love, embraces us and shelters us, surrounds us for His love, and will never leave us. And for this, I am certain that there be many that never had shewing nor sight but of the common teaching of Holy Church, that love God better than I. For if I look singularly to myself, I am right nought. But in the general Body I am, I hope, in oneness of charity with all mine even-Christians.”

On God’s nearness and love (Ch. LVI):

“For our soul is so specially loved of Him that is highest, that it overpasseth the knowing of all creatures… And therefore we may with grace and His help stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of this high, overpassing, inestimable Love that Almighty God hath to us of His Goodness. For He is nearer to us than our own soul.”

Source: Vatican.va

“She understood the central message for the spiritual life: God is love, and only when we open ourselves totally to this love and allow it to become the sole guide of our life, is everything transfigured, true peace and true joy found, and we are able to spread it.”

“Julian’s message, sustained by optimism and trust, is a powerful invitation to all those who, in our time, are gripped by anxiety and fear.”

“Julian is not only the great mystic who has visions of God’s love, but also the wise and loving counselor who, like the saints, knows the human heart well.”

“We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end… will we fully know… the ways by which—even through the dramas of evil and sin—God has guided his creation… to its definitive Sabbath rest.”

Julian is quoted directly in this paragraph:

“Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly hold me in the faith … and that, at the same time, I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord showed in this time — that ‘all manner of thing shall be well.’”

What resonates with you about Julian’s desire to suffer with Christ?

Are you more familiar with fear or with trust? What does Julian’s calm confidence stir in your heart?

What does it mean to you that “God is love” is not an abstract idea, but a living, personal truth?

Lord Jesus Christ, our endless bliss,
You revealed to Julian the mystery of love in the midst of sorrow.
Grant us the grace to desire You with longing,
To see You with the eyes of faith,
And to trust You even in our wounds.
Let us know, deep in our hearts,
That all shall be well—because You are with us.
Amen.

The post Ep 1 – Julian of Norwich and the Unshakable Love of God – All Shall Be Well w/ Kris McGregor – Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts appeared first on Discerning Hearts Catholic Podcasts.