Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich & Simon Parke

Author:Julian of Norwich & Simon Parke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Spirituality, Religion, Classics, Catholicism, Christianity
ISBN: 9781907661099
Publisher: White Crow Books
Published: 2011-09-30T01:20:30+00:00

CHAPTER 47

TWO things belong to our soul as duty: the one is that we reverently marvel, and the other that we meekly suffer, ever finding joy in God. For he would have us understand that in a short time we shall see clearly in himself all that we desire.

Notwithstanding all this, I beheld and marvelled greatly at the mercy and forgiveness of God. For by the teaching that I had before, I understood that the mercy of God was the forgiveness of his wrath when we sin. For I thought that to a soul whose meaning and desire is to love, the wrath of God was harder than any other pain; and so I took the forgiveness of his wrath to be one of the principal points of his mercy. But however much I looked or wished, I could never see this point in any part of the showing. Yet I understood and saw the work of mercy, which I shall tell of, God willing.

I understood this: that we are changeable in this life and that overcome by frailty, we fall into sin. We are weak and unwise, and our will is overwhelmed. In such times we are in a storm, full of sorrow and woe; and the cause is our blindness, for we do not see God. If we saw God continually, we would have no such mischievous feelings, nor the energy or yearning that feeds sin. .

This is what I saw and felt at this time; and I thought the sight and feeling was most high, abundant and gracious in comparison with our everyday feelings in this life. Yet I thought it was but small and low in comparison to the great desire that the soul has to see God. And I felt in myself five sorts of workings, which are these: enjoying, mourning, desire, fear and sure hope.

Enjoying, for God gave me understanding and knowledge that it was he himself who I saw; mourning for my failing; desire, that I might increasingly see him, understanding and knowing that we shall never have full rest until we see him truly and clearly in heaven. Fear was there all the time, for it seemed my sight would fail, and I would then be left to myself; and sure hope was there in the endless love, in which I saw that I would be kept by his mercy and brought to his bliss. And the joy in his sight, with this sure hope of his merciful keeping, gave me such feelings of comfort that mourning and dread were hardly noticed.

And yet in all this, I knew in the showing of God that this manner of revelation cannot be continuous in this life, both by reason of his own honour and that our endless joy might grow. And therefore we often fail in his sight, and presently fall into our self, where we find no feeling of right. There we find nothing but contrariness within ourselves, which is the old root of our first sin, with all the sins that follow from our contrivances.

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