Julian of Norwich Archives - 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.