I've shared here how last summer Jana and I were able to visit Julian of Norwich's church, St. Julian's Church in Norwich. During that visit, I picked up a copy of Revelations of Divine Love in Middle English, with the hope that I'd read it through. But a year has passed, and I haven't done it. And so, I thought I'd publicly commit myself to the task, using Fridays to work through the eighty-six chapters of Revelations of Divine Love, highlighting a line or passage from each chapter in the Middle English along with an accompanying translation into modern English.
And to be clear, there is no real reason to share Julian's Middle English other than whimsy on my part.
To start, a little background about the text we call Revelations of Divine Love.
We don't know much about Julian's life prior to her becoming an anchoress. Anchoritism was a distinctive practice of medieval Christianity, where the anchorite, often a woman, would have a cell built that was attached to an exterior wall of a church. The anchoress lived enclosed in her cell for the rest of her days. A window made in the church wall, called a "squint" or "hagioscope," allowed the anchoress to see the altar and participate in the Mass from her cell. Another window in the cell opened to the outside. At this window, the anchoress could receive visitors. It was common for people to seek out an anchoress for prayer and spiritual counsel. We know Julian engaged in this practice because we have a firsthand account from Margery Kempe, who made a pilgrimage to Norwich to visit with "Dame Julian."
What eventually became Revelations of Divine Love comes from two different texts, the Short Text and the Long Text. Julian fell ill in 1373 and experienced a series of sixteen visions she called "showings." We believe she wrote down a brief summary of these showings—the Short Text—shortly after her illness and prior to her enclosure. After her enclosure, Julian returned to her showings and expanded upon them, reflecting on their deeper meanings. This produced what is called the Long Text, which we know as Revelations of Divine Love, consisting of eighty-six chapters and originally written in Middle English.
In Chapter One Julian takes a quick walk through her sixteen showings, the outline of all that is to follow. Here are the opening sentences of Revelations of Divine Love which describe the first two visions:
This is a Revelation of love that Jesus Christ, our endless blisse, made in sixteen Sheweings or Revelations particular. Off the which, the first is of His pretious coroning with thornys; and therewith was comprehended and specifyed the Trinite with the incarnation, and unite betwix God and man soule, with many faire sheweings of endless wisedome and teacheing of love, in which all the sheweings that follow be grounded and onyd. The second is the discolloureing of His faire face in tokenyng of His deareworthy passion.
Translation from Fr. John-Julian:
This is a revelation of love that Jesus Christ, our endless joy, made in sixteen showings or revelations, in detail, of which
The first is concerning his precious crowning with thorns; and therewith was included and described in detail the Trinity with the Incarnation and the unity between God and man's soul, with many beautiful showings of endless wisdom and teachings of love in which all the showings that follow are based and united.
The second showing is the discoloring of His fair face in symbolizing His dearworthy passion.
As you can see from the first two showings—the crowning of thorns and the discolored face of Jesus—Julian’s revelations focus upon what she calls Christ’s “dearworthy passion.” “Dearworthy” is a Middle English word describing something of “dear worth,” as in “precious” or “valued.” As Julian will reveal in Chapters 2 and 3, as she lay dying due to her illness her priest gave her a crucifix to gaze at. As she did so, the “showings” came to her. Thus, much of Revelations of Divine Love is taken up with meditating upon the blood and agony of Jesus and what his passion reveals about God’s love and the human predicament.
I bring all this up at the start because this very medieval aspect of Julian’s spirituality, her focus upon Christ’s “dearworthy passion,” sits in tension with many “spiritual but not religious” appropriations of her revelations. To be sure, there is an optimism in Julian that stands in stark contrast with much within medieval Christianity. But at the same time, Julian's focus upon Christ’s death, agony, and blood contrasts with progressive Christian takes on Julian. For many progressive Christians, the passion of Christ is an obscene scandal.
For Julian, in all its bloody agony, the passion is dearworthy.
