Chapter 86
THE SIXTEENTH SHOWING
Chapter 86 The good Lord showed that this book should be completed in a way other than by the first writing; for His working He wills that we pray for this, thanking Him, trusting Him and rejoicing in Him; how He made this showing because He wills to have it known; in this knowing He will give us grace to love Him; for fifteen years afterward it was answered that the cause of the whole of the showing was love — the which may Jesus grant us! Amen!
This book has been begun by God's gift and His grace, but it has not yet been completed, as I see it. We all pray together to God for charity, thanking, trusting and rejoicing by the working of God. This is how our good Lord wills that we pray to Him, according to the understanding I drew from all of what He intended us to learn and from the sweet words He spoke most cheerfully, "I am the ground of your beseeching."
For I saw and understood truly from what our Lord intended that He showed it because He wills to have it known better than it is. In this knowing, He wills to give us grace to love Him and cling to Him. He beholds His heavenly treasure with such great love on earth that He wills to give us more light and solace in heavenly joy, drawing our hearts from the sorrow and darkness they are in.
From the time of the showing, I desired frequently to understand what our Lord's meaning was, and more than fifteen years afterward I was answered by a spiritual understanding that said, "Do you want to understand your Lord's meaning in this experience? Understand it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love. Hold yourself in this truth and you shall understand and know more in the same vein. And you will never know or understand anything else in it forever."
Thus was I taught that love is our Lord's meaning. And I saw most certainly in this and in everything that before God made us He loved us, and this love never slackened and never shall. In this love He has done all His works, in this love He has made all things profitable for us, and in this love our life
THE. REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
is everlasting. In our creation we had a beginning, but the love by which He made us was in Him from without beginning, and in this love we have our beginning. And all this we shall see in God without end.
SCRIBAL ADDITIONS
Each of the manuscript versions of Juliana's Revelation ends with a kind of dismissal by the scribe, ranging from the brevity of the single Latin sentence of the 1413 manuscript to the several paragraphs of the scribe of Sloane 2499, faithfully copied by the scribe of Sloane 3705, who adds his own closing. Since each colophon adds something distinctive to the recorded manuscript, I have chosen to include all four in translation.
1413 Thus ends Juliana of Norwich. (Latin) Paris Thus is completed the book of the revelations of Juliana, an anchorite of Norwich, on whose soul may God have mercy. (Latin) Sloane 2499 Thus ends the revelation of love of the blessed
Trinity showed by our Savior Christ Jesus for our endless comfort and solace, and also that we might rejoice in Him in the passing journey of this life. Amen, Jesus, amen.
I pray Almighty God that this book may come only to the hands of those who will be His faithful lovers, to those who will submit to the faith of holy Church and obey the wholesome understanding and teaching of the men who lead virtuous lives, are of serious age and are profound in learning. For this revelation is lofty divinity and high wisdom. Therefore it cannot dwell with him who is in slavery to sin and to the devil.
Beware that you do not accept one thing according to your desire and pleasure, and ignore another, for that is
212,
SCRIBAL ADDITIONS
~ the behavior of a heretic. Accept everything with everything else, understanding it all truly. Everything is according to holy Scripture and is grounded in it, and Jesus our true Love, Light and Truth will show that to all pure souls who perseveringly ask this wisdom of Him with meekness.
And you to whom this book shall come, intensely and heartily thank our Savior Christ Jesus for making these showings and revelations for you and to you from His endless love, mercy and goodness, for your and our safe guide and conduct to everlasting bliss. May Jesus grant us this! Amen. (English) Sloane 3705 adds to this the following:
Here ends the sublime and wonderful revelations of the unutterable love of God in Jesus Christ, given to a dear lover of His and, in her, to all His dear friends and lovers, whose hearts, like hers, flame in the love of our dearest
Jesus. (English)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In addition to the manuscripts described in the Introduction, I have used the following works in preparing this translation.
Many of them contain bibliographies, more or less extensive, that will provide further information on specific related topics.
Butler-Bowdon, W., trans. The Book of Margery Kempe. New York: Devin-Adair Company, 1944.
Coleman, T. W. English Mystics of the Fourteenth Century.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1971 (reprint; first published in London: Epworth Press, 1938).
Colledge, Edmund, O.S.A., and James Walsh, S.J., trans. Julian of Norwich: Showings. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
Cooper, Austin, O.M.I. Julian of Norwich: Reflections on Selected Texts. Mystic, Conn.: Twenty-Third Publications, 1988.
Hodgson, Phyllis, ed. Deonise Hid Diuinite and Other Treatises on Contemplative Prayer. Early English Text Society
No. 231. London: Oxford University Press, 1955.
Holmes, George. The Later Middle Ages, 1272-1485. New York:
W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1962.
Hudleston, Dom Roger, ed. Revelations of Divine Love Shewed to a Devout Ankress, by Name, Julian of Norwich. Westminster,
Md.: Newman Press, 1952.
John-Julian, Father, O.J.N., trans. A Lesson of Love: The Revelations of Julian of Norwich. New York: Walker & Co.,
1988.
Johnston, William, S.J., trans. The Cloud of Unknowing; and The Book of Privy Counseling. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
Image Books, 1973.
pee
BIBLIOGRAPHY
~ Knowles, David. The English Mystical Tradition. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1961.
Meisel, Anthony C.; and del Mastro, M. L., trans. The Rule of Saint Benedict. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books,
1975.
Milosh, Joseph E. "The Scale of Perfection" and the English Mystical Tradition. Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin
Press, 1966.
Molinari, Paul, S.J. Julian of Norwich: the Teaching of a 14th Century English Mystic. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.,
1958.
Ryan, John K., trans. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Image Books, 1960.
Sherley-Price, Leo, trans. The Scale of Perfection. St. Meinrad, Ind.: Abbey Press, 1975.
Sitwell, Dom Gerard, O.S.B. "Contemplation in 'The Scale of Perfection,' " Downside Review, 67 (Summer, 1949), 276-90;
68 (Winter, 1949-50), 21-34; 68 (Summer, 1950), 271-89.
, trans. The Scale of Perfection by Walter Hilton. Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1953.
Stone, Robert Karl. Middle English Prose Style. The Hague:
Mouton, 1970.
Walsh, James, S.J., ed. Pre-Reformation English Spirituality. New York: Fordham University Press, c. 1965 (no date given).
, trans. The Revelations of Divine Love of Julian of Norwich.
St. Meinrad, Ind.: Abbey Press, 1974.
Wolters, Clifton, trans. The Cloud of Unknowing. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1961.
, trans. The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle. Baltimore, Md.:
Penguin Books, 1972.
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Md le ws The revelation of divine love in $i en $
$12.95
Spirituality "g ° "Julian is, without doubt, one of the most | wonderful of Christian voices."
~THOMAS MERTON
¥ te Pw & po Zw ~& ~or all those in search of abiding union with God, The Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen Showings takes its place among such great mystical classics as those of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
A fourteenth-century Englishwoman, recluse, and mystic, Julian has been called by Thomas Merton "with Newman, the great English theologian." Her revelation is the record of "showings" of the Lord's passion so that she might embrace suffering more fully and share her response with her fellow Christians for all time. In having this revelation written down, she hoped that all who read it would heartily thank God "for his endless love, mercy, and goodness, and guide us to everlasting bliss."
Del Mastro's translation, originally published over fifteen years ago, has been one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed. In the revised
Introduction, del Mastro casts Julian in a broader light as an appealing feminine model for a new generation of readers.
"Anyone engaged in the day-to-day struggles of the human journey from becoming to being, from self-centering to God-centeredness, from earth to heaven, from life through death to Life," writes del Mastro, "will find in Julian much to think about, much to pray with, and much to comfort
— him/her, despite the differences in life circumstances." i
LIGUORI/TRIUMPH
LIGUORI, MISSOURI
Cover design by Pam Hummelsheim