The Roots of Christian Mysticism Session 15
Summary of Professor June Boyce-Tillman's "Julian of Norwich" talk, The London Christian Meditation Centre, St Mark's, Clerkenwell, 31 January 2006

Introduction

Julian of Norwich became popular in the 1960s’ in response to the incoming tide of Eastern mysticism. A large number of people were converting to Hinduism and Buddhism because they couldn’t find what they wanted within the Christian tradition. The Christian mystical tradition was there but well hidden. It was through Julian that people began to discover this. Julian with her visions of the passion and her picture of the homeliness and courteousness of God lies somewhere between Hildegard of Bingen’s majestic visions (Hildegard became popular in the 1980s and 1990s’ with the interest in ecology and with the help of Matthew Fox) and Margery Kempe’s very ordinary visions of herself as the handmaid to the Virgin and the scurrying about looking for baby clothes that this involved.

Julian like Hildegard has left us no manual on “How to get a vision” partly because she herself used the Ancrene Riwle, a rule for anchoresses which already existed, to help her make sense of her life.

What she has left us in her book is her conviction of the centrality of the love of God.

Julian’s story

Before beginning her story Professor Boyce-Tillman read a poem about Julian by Monica Furlong.

We then sang Julian’s own prayer:

God of your goodness
Give me yourself
For you are enough for me,
And I can ask for nothing which is less which can pay you full worship.
And if I ask anything which is less, always I am in want; but only in you do I have everything.

Julian was born in 1342 and had her visions on 8th May 1373 when she was 30 ½ years old.

Her visions were rooted in three prayers she had made earlier in her life:

1) She had prayed to have mind of the passion, first hand experience of the crucifixion. (She was obviously not following the advice of Walter Hilton on this for he counselled people to distance themselves from the passion!)
2) She also prayed for a physical illness (this was linked with the medieval notion of dying a good death)
3) and finally she prayed (following St. Cecilia) that she might receive three wounds-of contrition, compassion and sincere longing for the will of God.

She had been ill for three days and three nights and on the fourth night had received the last rites of the church. She, and all around her, thought that she was dying. Her body was actually dead from the waist down and her eyes were set. Her priest was sent for and held the crucifix before her eyes saying “I have brought you the likeness of your God and Saviour.” Her sight began to fade and everything in the room was dark except for the cross which glowed. Suddenly all her pain fled and she was completely well. She marvelled at her recovery which she attributed to God and not nature.

It was at this point she had her visions. (We might call it a near death experience!) She first saw the red blood of Jesus trickling down. This was accompanied by inward sight that God is everything that is good. He is our clothing who for love enwraps and enfolds us. Other images followed.

Her context

Norwich, a walled city, was the second city in England at that time. Ships filled her port and she engaged in trade with the Netherlands exporting cloth and importing lace and wine. Norwich was unaffected by the 100 years’ war being waged with France which badly affected the ports on the south coast. Norwich was wealthy at this time and the wealth of its merchants was used to engage in a period of extensive church-building. There were many monasteries and convents within its walls. The largest and most important of these was the Benedictine priory which is now the cathedral. In 1362 a gale damaged the spire.

Julian knew little Latin or French. She wrote in Middle English. Most people were illiterate and learnt scripture from the stained glass windows and the statues. The Lollards produced a bible in the vernacular but they were regarded as heretics and many were burnt in a pit close to Julian’s cell. Margery Kempe was almost condemned as a Lollard.

As she worked out the meaning of her revelations in her cell she lived as an anchoress. She was attended by two servants Sarah and Jane and also had a cat. Her cell consisted of two rooms. A window looked out onto the world and people including Margery Kempe came to this window for counselling. From the other window onto the church she was able to watch the elevation of the host at mass and take part in all the Church’s offices.

She died in about 1430.

Julian was a struggler like all the mystics.

We have the story of her inner life but very few details of outer life.

In some ways she challenges the teaching of the church although she expressly supports it. There is no record of her ever being questioned as a heretic. She was locked in her cell so she was less of a threat than Margery who was on the loose.

Julian’s theology

Thomas Merton wrote of her that she was the greatest English theologian along with Newman.

Sources of her theology

In the interconnectedness of her theology she sees the sources of reason and experience as closely entwined. The third source of her theology is the tradition of the church. In the church the tradition was mediated by the sacraments and these were important to Julian. Christ’s body and blood become our nurturing. Like the Italian hymnody of the time her assurance that All shall be well was in direct conflict with the doctrine of purgatory and condemnation.

The motherhood of God

The most original part of her thinking was the way she developed the idea of the motherhood of God. This idea can be detected in scripture (Galatians 4, Isaiah 49). The idea can also be found in Anselm. Many regarded the idea of the motherhood of God as suspicious because of its link with Gnosticism. The Ancrene Riwle also has some notion of it. This idea was developed quite late by Julian as it is not in her short text which she wrote immediately after the visions. It can be found in the long text written some twenty years later. She speaks of Jesus as Mother and the Church as mother.

Sin

Her concept of sin is that it is built into the human condition. The real problem for Julian was sin and suffering but she was assured that “All will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.”

The church taught that we were to blame for our sins but the story of the Master and Servant which forms the centre piece of Julian’s revelations showed no blame. The Lord sits at peace and the servant stands eager and willing to do the master’s bidding. He rushes off and falls into a ditch. He had no comfort because he could not turn his head and look at his Lord. If he could have done he would have seen that the Lord looked at him with pity and not with blame. It is only our pain that grieves us.

We should look away from sin and instead look towards God. Sin is necessary. The wounds of Christ and our sin are almost synonymous. We are part of his wounding. This is where the contemplative tradition comes from. The problem with the Jesus Prayer is that this does exactly the reverse. It concentrates on our sin which is exactly what Julian tells us not to do. We do ourselves no good by wallowing in our sin. God does not demand us to be sinless. He loves us endlessly and we sin customarily. Sit lightly to your sins. This is the way you will not be overcome because God delights in us. This is an antidote to the problem of today a feeling that a lot of people have of a lack of self-worth.

Centrality of love

“Love was his meaning.Who reveals it to you?Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same. But you will never know different, without end.”

She develops her idea of the centrality of love at a time when the doctrine of purgatory was being developed and the consequent Requiem mass with the great judgemental Dies Irae.

Conclusion

Today there are many Julian groups all over the country. T.S. Eliot uses her “All is well” refrain through his Four Quartets.

We finished with another poem by Monica Furlong.