Revelations of Divine Love

The text opens by naming this a Revelation of Love made by Jesus Christ in Sixteen Shewings, then lists each in order: the crowning with thorns (in which the Trinity, Incarnation, and unity of God and man's soul are comprehended and in which all following Shewings are grounded); the changing of His face's colour; God as doer of all things; the scourging; the Fiend overcome by the Passion; the worshipful thanking of servants; the feeling of weal and woe; the last pains and dying; the pleasing in the Trinity; the cloven heart; the Shewing of His Mother; His worthy Being; regard for His deeds, with His saying "Behold and see"; the Ground of Prayer; being taken from pain; and the Trinity dwelling in the soul. It states these were shewed to a simple unlettered creature in 1373, who had desired three gifts: mind of the Passion, bodily sickness at thirty, and three wounds. She recounts her sickness, receiving her rites, expecting death, her body dying upward, her Curate setting the Cross before her, and her pain suddenly ceasing. She desires the second wound, to feel His Passion. In the First Revelation she sees red blood trickle from the Garland, the Trinity fills her heart with joy, she says "Benedicite Domine," and our Lady is shewn as a simple maid. She sees a little thing like a hazel-nut, all that is made, kept by God's love, and receives the prayer "God, of Thy Goodness, give me Thyself." She teaches that God's Goodness is the highest prayer reaching the lowest need. She describes the blood falling like pellots, herring-scales, and eaves-drops, and gives the example of a King made homely with a poor servant, concluding that He who is highest and mightiest is lowest and meekest.

In the continuing first Shewing of the plenteous bleeding of the Head, Julian says "Benedicite Domine!" and understands six things: the tokens of the Passion and shedding of blood; the Maiden His Mother; the blissful Godhead; all that He has made; that He keeps by love what He made for love; and that God is all that is good. The bodily sight stints, the spiritual dwells. She says to those about her, "It is to-day Doomsday with me," speaking in the person of all even-Christians, and counsels them to behold God rather than the creature it was shown to. She states that if she looks singularly to herself she is right nought, and that all was shown by three ways: bodily sight, word formed in understanding, and spiritual sight. In the Second Revelation she sees part of the Passion in the crucifix's face, half over-gone with dry blood; her reason answers that God shall be her light. Her understanding is led to the sea-ground; God wills to be seen, sought, abided, trusted. She links this to the Vernacle at Rome and teaches that seeking is as good as beholding. In the Third Revelation she sees God in a Point, asks "What is sin?", and learns God does all, that all done is well done, and sin is no deed; God says "See! I am God." In the Fourth Revelation she sees the body bleeding from the Scourging; the precious blood descends to Hell, overflows Earth, ascends to Heaven. In the Fifth, our Lord forms "Herewith is the Fiend overcome"; she laughs and perceives game, scorn, earnest. In the Sixth, He thanks her for her travail and youth, showing a lordly feast and three degrees of bliss. In the Seventh, joy and pain alternate about twenty times.

After this Christ shows part of His Passion near His dying: His face dries and pales, turning blue, then brown-black. A dry, cold wind meets the bloodlessness within, and four dryings—two without, two within—dry His flesh over long time, seeming as if He had been seven nights dead. The words "I thirst" come to mind; the text distinguishes a bodily and a spiritual thirst, the latter reserved for the Thirty-first Chapter. The bodily thirst is caused by failing moisture. The narrator sees the Crown of Thorns, the loosened skin, and four manners of drying. The Shewing fills her with pain, and she repents having asked for it; she is answered in her reason that Hell is another pain, despair, but that to see her Love suffer is the most pain leading to salvation. She sees the compassion of our Lady, Saint Mary, and the oneing between Christ and all creatures; Pilate and Saint Dionyse of France are named, Dionyse writing "Altar of Unknown God." Offered in her reason to look up to Heaven to the Father, she answers "Nay; Thou art my Heaven," choosing Jesus. She describes outward and inward parts of the soul. Christ languors long, suffering for every man's sin that shall be saved. She names Three Manners of Beholding the Passion; Christ suddenly changes His Countenance and asks "Where is now any point of the pain?" In the Ninth Revelation Jesus asks "Art thou well pleased that I suffered for thee?" and says He would suffer more; she sees three heavens and the Father. The Trinity wrought in the Passion, but only the Maiden's Son suffered; the glad giver is described. In the Tenth Revelation, our Lord looks into His wounded Side, showing a place for all saved, His cloven heart, saying, "Lo, how I loved thee."

Our Lord asks whether the writer would see His blessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary, saying she is the highest joy after Himself, and shows how He loves her; He speaks to all mankind that shall be saved, asking whether they would see in her how they are loved. The writer answers that she desires the virtues of Mary's soul rather than bodily presence. Jesus gives a ghostly sight of Mary, high and noble; He showed her three times—with Child, in sorrow under the Cross, and now in joy. Then our Lord shows Himself more glorified and repeatedly says "I it am," naming Himself as highest, loved, enjoyed, served, longed for, and all. The writer states the words pass her understanding. Next she recalls wondering why God did not hinder the beginning of sin; Jesus answers that sin behoved to be, "but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well," showing no blame. She sees sin has no substance, known only by the pain it causes. She sees Christ's compassion, and that each kind compassion man has on his even-Christians is Christ in him. She asks how all could be well given sin's harm; the Lord shows Adam's sin the greatest harm, yet the Satisfaction more pleasing. He gives understanding of two parts of truth—the open (Saviour and salvation) and the hidden (His privy counsel). He answers all doubts: I may, I can, I will, I shall make all thing well, and thou shalt see thyself. She interprets the five words by the Trinity, and expounds Christ's Spiritual Thirst and love-longing. She describes a Great Deed the Trinity shall do at the last Day, hidden until done, by which all shall be made well, though Faith holds some shall be condemned. She desires sight of Hell and Purgatory but sees nothing, and is taught to leave the beholding, trusting Holy Church's teaching.

Julian desires to learn assuredly about a certain creature she loves, whether it will continue in good living. Feeling she hinders herself, she is answered in her reason by a friendly intervenor: take it generally, for it is more worship to behold God in all than in any special thing. She reflects on Rightfulness and Mercy. Our Lord shows that a deed shall be done, and He Himself shall do it, while she shall do nothing but sin; her sin shall not hinder His Goodness working. This deed's nature is kept secret. The word "done for me" means for the general Man, all who shall be saved. Our Lord calls the soul: "Let be all thy love, my dearworthy child." This deed and a Great Deed are two sundry; the Great Deed shall not be known till done. He teaches concerning miracles, which come after sorrow and tribulation. God brings to mind that she should sin; she takes it singularly but learns to take it for all her even-Christians. Our Lord answers: "I keep thee full surely." In every soul to be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin. God shows that sin shall be no shame but worship, naming David, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul, those of Inde, and Saint John of Beverley. Sin is the sharpest scourge; by contrition we are made clean, by compassion ready, by true longing worthy. True love teaches to hate sin only for love. Our Lord welcomes: "My darling I am glad thou art come to me." No harder hell than sin. The Fourteenth Revelation concerns Prayer: "I am Ground of thy beseeching." He bids "Pray inwardly, though thee thinketh it savour thee not." Thanking also belongs to prayer.

The text states that prayer is a right understanding of joy to come, with longing and trust, and that three things belong to prayer: by whom and how it springs (God saying "I am Ground" through His Goodness and will), the manner of using it (turning the will to God's, as He says "I make thee to will it"), and its fruit (being oned to the Lord). Prayer and trust should be equally large. God is Being; He has done all before prayers—our noble making, precious again-buying, and all things made to serve us. One should see that He does the deed and pray for it. In the next section, prayer oneth the soul to God; when the soul is tempested it is time to pray, and God is ever alike in love. There is a high unperceivable prayer of beholding Him, and eventually the creature shall see God face to face. It is then stated that God is endless Truth, Wisdom, and Love, unmade, and man's soul is a creature with the same properties made, shown in the working of the soul of our Lady, Saint Mary. Two dooms are described: God's rightful judgment on our Nature-Substance (assigning no blame) and man's judgment on the changeable Sense-soul; the answer to reconciling them is the example of a lord and a servant, shown mistily. It is stated that we deserve pain and wrath, yet the Lord is never wroth, for He is Goodness. Julian yields to her Mother, Holy Church. She marvels at mercy and forgiveness, describes five workings—enjoying, mourning, desire, dread, sure hope—and how we fall into ourselves. Finally she beholds the property of Mercy (belonging to Motherhood) and Grace (royal Lordship), concluding that God's mercy and forgiveness slacken and waste our wrath.

The text states that where the Lord appears, peace is taken and wrath has no place, and the soul is oned to God when peaced. Julian marvels that God cannot be wroth, since life is grounded in love and wrath and friendship are contraries. She saw no wrath in God, only keeping in His endless Might, Wisdom, and Goodness. God works peace against our contrariness; we are safe by His merciful keeping, though not blissfully safe till we are in peace and love. Our Lord Jesus takes our tribulations to Heaven, turning them sweet. In God's sight the soul to be saved was never dead. Julian marvels that God shows no blame though we sin daily; between these contraries her reason is travailed. Naming three points making her bold, she cries to Lord Jesus for teaching.

The chapter opens with the sayings that Christ is the Head and we His members, and that the Father assigns no more blame to us than to His Son. The Lord then shows an example of a Lord and a Servant. The Lord sits in peace; the Servant stands ready, is sent, runs, falls into a slade, and is hurt, groaning and unable to rise, failing of comfort. Seven pains are listed. Julian sees no fault in him. The Lord shows a double Regard and speaks of rewarding the Servant above his former wholeness. The example vanishes. She notes the Servant was shown for Adam, yet bore properties beyond single Adam. Twenty years later she receives inward teaching to heed all the properties. She identifies the Lord as God and the Servant as Adam, All-Man, whose will is kept whole though he is blinded. Only Pain blames; the Lord comforts. She describes the Lord's barren seat, blue clothing, fair-brown face, black eyes, and the mingling of Ruth and Pity with Joy and Bliss, Mercy descending with Adam into hell. The barren earth signifies man's soul as God's City. The Servant's white kirtle, old and defaced, is described; a treasure in the earth is a food; the Servant is a gardener. The Servant comprehends both the Second Person and Adam. The Lord is the Father, the Servant the Son, Christ Jesus; the Holy Ghost is Love. When Adam fell, God's Son fell into the Maiden's womb. The Son says he stands in Adam's kirtle ready to run. His starting is the Godhead, running the Manhood; the ragged kirtle is the Passion. He goes into Hell, raises the Root, and after Easter His flesh is made new. Now the Son sits in Heaven, crowned with us, at the Father's right hand, in peace with His Wife.

The text states there is matter of mourning, since sin causes Christ's pains, and matter of joy, since love made Him suffer. God rejoices to be Father, Mother, and Spouse; Christ rejoices to be Brother, and Jesus to be Saviour—five joys. It describes a mingling of weal and woe in those who shall be saved, and says Christ is with us in three manners: in Heaven (shown in the Spiritual Thirst), on earth (the Third Shewing), and in the soul (the Sixteenth Shewing). The Servant showed Adam's falling and God's Son's wisdom; the Lord showed pity and the nobility Mankind attains. It states we cannot keep wholly from sin in this life but may avoid deadly sins, and if we fall should rise without despair or recklessness. Man accuses himself; God excuses man. Two manners of Regard, outward and inward, were shown. In every soul to be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin. Before He made us He loved us; man's soul is made of nought. God dwells in the soul, and the soul dwells in God; the Trinity is Father, Mother, and Lord, enclosing us as we enclose Them. Christ is our Way, presenting His Father with those to be saved, whom the Father receives and gives back to the Son (Ninth Shewing). We are more verily in heaven than earth. The sense-soul is grounded in Nature, Mercy, and Grace; the soul is made-trinity. Mankind is restored from double death because the Second Person took the lower part of man's nature (Eighth Shewing). It states we come to knowing God more readily than our own Soul, God being nearer than our soul, and describes Reason grounded in God, three properties in one Goodness, and that God willed we should be double.

Chapter LVII states that in Substance God made mankind noble; "we" means Man that shall be saved. In Substance mankind is full, in the Sense-soul it fails, which God restores by Mercy and Grace. Nature is whole in God; the higher part is knit to God in making, the lower part God takes in flesh-taking, so in Christ two natures are oned. Faith is the next Good received. The Commandments carry biddings to love and forbiddings to hate; faith brings the Seven Sacraments and virtues. God knit Himself to the body in the Virgin's womb, taking the Sensual soul; our Lady is Mother in whom all are enclosed, and the Saviour is Very Mother. Chapter LVIII: the blessed Trinity purposed to make Mankind; God is Nature's Father (Might), Mother (Wisdom), and Lord (Love/Holy Ghost). He is Spouse and mankind His Wife. Life is in three: Nature, Mercy, Grace—Being, Increasing, Fulfilling. The Second Person is Mother of Substance and of Sense-soul. Chapter LIX: wickedness suffered to rise, and Goodness contraried it. Jesus, doing good against evil, is Very Mother. God says "I it am," naming Fatherhood, Motherhood, Grace, Trinity, Unity. Chapter LX: God took the Ground of His Works in the Maiden's womb, doing Motherhood's office. Jesus bears mankind to joy; He says "If I might suffer more, I would suffer more," and feeds mankind with Himself in the Sacrament, leading into His breast through His open side, saying "Lo, how I loved thee." Chapter LXI: He suffers some to fall harder; falling brings knowing of love and meekness. The child should run to the Mother, saying "have mercy on me." He says "I keep thee full surely." Chapter LXII: God is Very Father and Mother of Nature; all natures shall be restored through Grace, and in man is all the whole.

The text states that sin is unclean and unkind, and that both Nature and Grace teach hatred of sin; Grace was sent to save Nature, destroy sin, and bring Nature back to God. Nature is assayed in the fire of tribulation and found without flaw. Nature and Grace are of one accord, for both are God. Sin is viler than hell. It counsels making moan to the dearworthy Mother, Jesus, who besprinkles souls in His blood. Jesus, as Very Mother, grounds and feeds our life; Childhood is named the highest stature. All children brought out by Nature are brought back by Grace. In the Fifteenth Revelation, Julian recounts her longing to be delivered from this life. The Lord answers that suddenly she shall be taken from all pain, come up above, have Him as her reward, and never have pain. She sees a heavy body like stinking mire, from which springs a little Child, whiter than lily, gliding into heaven. She reflects that it is more blissful to be taken from pain. The Fifteen Shewings lasted from about four to nine in the morning. Then all was closed. Julian's sickness returned. A Religious person asks how she fares; she says she had raved; he laughs, then, hearing the Cross bled, grows sober. She is ashamed at losing the comfort. Sleeping, the Fiend sets on her throat with a red, lean visage. She wakens; smoke, heat, and stench come; others smell nothing; she knows it is the Fiend. In the Sixteenth Revelation, the Lord shows her soul as a City where Jesus sits enthroned. He says: it was no raving—take it, believe it; thou shalt not be overcome. The Fiend returns with stench and jangling; she is delivered by the virtue of Christ's Passion. The Faith keeps the Sight after it passes.

Julian describes three manners of Cheer in our Lord's Countenance: the Cheer of Passion, shown while He was dying; the Cheer of Ruth and Compassion, shown to His lovers; and the Blissful Cheer, shown oftenest and longest. She states that as long as we meddle with sin we shall not see clearly the Blissful Cheer, and that two contrary things—highest bliss and deepest pain—cannot be together. She notes matter of mirth and matter of moaning, and that weeping means also ghostly longing. She cites the words "I it am that is highest," and lists three manner of knowings: knowing God, knowing oneself in Nature and Grace, and knowing oneself as to sin. She reports teaching shown in three parts: bodily sight, word formed in understanding, and spiritual sight. God shows two sicknesses: impatience or sloth, and despair or doubtful dread. Julian says lack of knowing Love travails us. She distinguishes four dreads: dread of affright, dread of pain, doubtful dread, and reverent dread, calling only reverent dread fully pleasing. She names Love and Dread as brethren. She says we need love, longing, and pity, and describes God's Thirst and three manners of longing; on the Last Day all shall be fulfilled and the pillars of heaven shall tremble in reverent dread. She states the soul beholding Jesus hates no hell but sin, and warns that beholding others' sins makes a thick mist unless joined with compassion. She names Jesus the sovereign Friend, describes the enemy's false dread, and how our rising sorrows the Fiend—which made her laugh. Our Lord says: accuse not thyself overmuch; all thy living is penance profitable; this life is prison and penance; in the remedy rejoice.

Our Lord shows sin and feebleness by the light of His grace, willing that we know four things: that He is our Ground, that He keeps us in our sin among enemies, how courteously He keeps us, and how steadfastly He abides. Through contrition and grace we are broken and then healed; this concerns the general Man. Julian relates that when shown she should sin, she attended not readily, and the Lord stopped teaching. She is taught to see her own sin, not others', except for comfort of fellow-Christians, and that the Shewing meant All-Man. Dread saves from presumption, the Shewing of Love from despair. When fallen, the Lord touches, stirs, and calls, willing that we turn hastily; He stands alone. Man stands by natural Reason, teaching of Holy Church, and working of the Holy Ghost, all of one God. God alone took our nature; Christ alone did the works of salvation. Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest; love suffers never to be without pity. The Lord shows Himself in diverse manners but takes place in man's soul; He beholds all our living as penance, and His love makes Him long. He beholds the servant with pity, not blame, saying "I keep thee full surely"; in falling and rising we are kept in one Love, seen through higher and lower beholding. Julian has touching of three properties: Life, Love, and Light; faith is our light in the night, which light is God. The light is Charity—unmade, made, and given. She marvels, and foresees all saying with one voice that it is well. The book is begun but not performed; "I am the Ground of thy beseeching." Fifteen years after, she is answered that Love was our Lord's meaning; ere God made us He loved us.