She lived in the fourteenth century and spent most of her life cloistered in a small stone cell attached to a church. Her sole companion was a cat. So, what could Julian of Norwich have to teach us today? If you’re interested in mysticism, quite a bit.
At the age of 30, while recovering from a serious illness that almost killed her, Julian had a series of visions. She called them “showings” and she believed they were direct communications from God. She would spend the rest of her life deciphering their meaning and, per God’s instructions, she shared the divine messages in a book. (Interestingly, it was the first published book attributed to a woman in all of English literature.)
In a new and very readable translation titled Julian of Norwich: The Showings, God of Love author Mirabai Starr sheds a fresh light on Julian’s teachings. There’s a certain repetitiveness to Julian’s writings, as she returns again and again to a few primary themes. Starr sums up her core messages this way:
- She teaches us that God’s love has nothing to do with rules and retribution and everything to do with mercy and compassion.
- She shows us that our failings and transgressions are simply an opportunity to love and grow and should not be dwelled upon.
- She promises us that, despite appearances to the contrary, all is well. Everything is all right at every moment if we could only look through the eyes of love.
Julian’s view of God was out of step with her times.
Julian of Norwich (the “of Norwich” part coming from the place she lived, Norwich, England), often goes out of her way to praise “the Holy Church,” as if the eyes of the church were upon her. But her teachings had little to with the Bible or the Christian beliefs of her time—especially when it came to God.
Like all mystics, Julian had a deeply personal relationship with God. Starr explains that “Julian’s God is not some inaccessible father figure who rules from on high; he is her intimate companion and most familiar loved one.” She engaged in a spiritual practice known as “one-ing” by which she became one with God. She also found the feminine in God, alternately referring to God as woman and man, she and he.
What follows are my self-selected greatest hits of Julian of Norwich, via the Mirabai Starr translation. The passages are in a different order than they appear in the book and I’ve grouped them by category. They’ve also been lightly edited.
God is ever present, always with us.
- God has created all that is made. There is nowhere that God is not.
- God is responsible for everything, no matter how little. Nothing happens by luck or chance. Everything is guided by the all-seeing wisdom of God.
- The dwelling of God is established, divinely placed within us since before the beginning of time. He enters this city and never departs, for God never leaves the soul, dwelling peacefully inside us forever.
- Our Beloved is here with us, calling to us and enfolding us in his tender love and will never ever leave us.
To know God, look to the soul.
- We cannot come to a complete understanding of God unless we come to truly know ourselves.
- He rests in our soul and delights in our understanding. He dwells within us in infinite bliss, drawing us ever deeper inward.
- The moment the soul is at peace within itself, it is immediately made one with God.
- The soul receives its greatest understanding through love. God wants us to root everything in the contemplation and enjoyment of love.
We sometimes forget about God. He’s still with us.
- Sometimes we are surrounded with the comforting presence of God. Other times we feel as if we had failed and are left to ourselves. God wants us to know that he supports us equally in well and woe.
- God does not want us to fall into despair on account of our so frequently missing the mark. Our shortcomings do not in any way diminish his love for us.
- Our Beloved wants us to realize that his love is the ground of our whole life. He is our everlasting protector, defending us against all our adversaries. All we have to do is rest in loving peace within ourselves, and God will keep us fully safe.
God is with us, even if we don’t know it.
- God’s love for humanity is so vast that he makes no distinction between the blessed Christ and the least soul among us.
- Anger is nothing but a stubborn opposition to peace and love. It comes from a lack of power, a lack of wisdom, or a lack of goodness. This lack is not in God, but in us.
- We need to stand up against evil, even if to do so causes discomfort or pain, and pray for the time when God will once again reveal himself and fill our hearts with the sweetness of his presence. Our Beloved wants us to trust that he is always with us.
- When we are unpeaceful, it is God who is our true peace and our real refuge. He is always working to bring us back to a place of peace inside ourselves.
God is Mother and Father.
- Just as God is our Father, God is also our Mother.
- Nature, love, wisdom, and knowledge are all attributes of the Mother, which is God. She is the ground, she is the essence, she is the same thing as nature.
- In everything she does she is like a kindly nurse who has no other task than to attend to the needs of her child. It is her purpose to keep us safe, it is her honor to save us, and it is her desire that we acknowledge this.
- God rejoices in all we do and are. We please her most wisely when we truly believe in her love and rejoice with her and in her.
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