....warning... this is a very long blog post.... copy, paste, and print it out? Get a cuppa and take a load off... and give it some time..... That said, please do read it. These are words spoken to us from long ago... and ancient friend to speak truth to our 'now' hearts.
As humans it is difficult for us to see beyond ourselves... We are generally, each one of us, self-centered. Truly. In psychological terms this can be referred to as the 'spotlight effect'.
I wonder if this is why God had commanded us and so clearly told us--- so often--- to 'remember' and be aware of our forefathers, our history, and the reality of the community at large (to be aware of others!)
It is difficult to see beyond ourselves. It is also difficult for us to see beyond our time. We know what we know now and find it challenging to reach back and understand the way of thinking, the values, the beliefs and the behaviours of another time. 100 year old philosophy, medicine, science, and even agriculture is hard to grasp for our minds---in fact, it often doesn't match what we know today, at all. 100 year ago thinking often looks silly, sometimes very wrong and definitely very different to our modern minds.
700 hundred years ago is almost impossible. Right?
But,...then we get a glimpse... just a peek into the hearts and minds of our forefathers and we stand amazed. What if ... what if, what I believe now... what if she believed it too? 700 years ago. And, what if that which is true has always been true and will always remain true, for ever.
...come age, come season, come nations falling and rising... what was, is, and is to come remains. Truth remains and has always been true.
I have had this sense as I have plunged and journeyed slowly through, a second time, the writings of Julian of Norwich*. She wrote in the late 1300s... one of the first known females to write in English. (yes, even before Margery Kempe... who is currently 'known' for being the 'first')
...so... instead of recommending you read Julian of Norwich (well, because it is not a small task)... I have gathered my favourite quotes from her Long Text (my Cliff notes for you).
Her writings remind me of my type of blogs. Funny, right? But, Julian is telling of what God has shown her (her 'shewings') and she is constantly sharing God's Word and the Truth that He is whispering into her heart and mind. She does this in short sections to encourage her readers. well,...that is what I have attempted to do here on Koodaigirl. Let's just say that Julian is an ancient blogger---an ancient Gods-girl!
Her words are so so so good, and so very sweet. …What God showed her, such a gift to our time.
Can I suggest you print this out and/or you read a few quotes at a time... take it in slowly? Sit with the words. Remember that this was not written in our time, from our vantage point, within our 'value' system, and our culture. Let our sister's words amaze you. Enjoy the fact that it feels so familiar.
As you read, let your mind drift to Scriptures that come to mind, hymns that rise up, and sermons or books you read recently. She is writing words of truth that have instructed us from the beginning... Truth is always truth... and it will always stand the test of time.
"Our Lord Almighty, all wisdom, all love---just as He has truly made everything that is, so He truly does and brings about all that is done."
"We are sustained securely in love, by the goodness of God, in misery as much as in joy."
"God is to us everything that is good, tenderly enfolding us; everything that is made is as nothing, compared with Almighty God; man has no rest until he counts himself and everything as nothing for the love of God."
"God is the maker, the carer, the lover. Everything has its being through the love of God."
"God wishes to be known and is pleased that we should rest in him."
"God, of your goodness, give me yourself. You are enough for me, and I cannot ask for anything less. If I do ask for anything less, I shall be in want. In you alone, I have everything."
"Our souls must learn the wisdom of clinging to the goodness of God. For truly our lover, God, wants our souls to cling to him with all their might."
"We can contemplate with endless wonder at this high, surpassing, inestimable love that God Almighty has for us in His goodness."
"He has made everything that is made for love and by that same love everything is sustained."
"Continual seeking of God pleases Him very much, the soul moved by the Holy Spirit seeks, suffers, and trusts."
"The blessed Trinity is always completely satisfied with all His works. He says, 'See I am God, I am in everything. I do everything. I never lift my hand from my work, nor ever shall, without end. I guide everything to the end to which I ordained it. How shall anything be amiss?'"
"Christ Jesus' passion is the devil's defeat. Everything that God allows him to do turns into joy for us and to shame and misery for him (the devil)."
"The marvellous melody of endless love keeps us safe in sorrow and in joy. To choose only Jesus for my heaven in both happiness and sorrow. Everything seems insignificant to him in comparison to His love."
"For it is God's will that we take true delight with Him in our salvation. He wants us to be greatly comforted and strengthened, and through His grace He wishes our souls to be happily occupied in this, for we are His bliss; He delights in us with out end and so shall we in Him, through His grace."
"Jesus says, 'Look how I loved you!' as if He said, 'Look and see that I loved you so much before I died for you that I was willing to die for you.'
"To bring to His bliss each person He loves, He lays on them something painful which is no defect in His sight on account of which they are rejected. He does this to prevent damage of pomp and vain glory."
"Contemplate the glorious atonement, for this atonement is incomparably more pleasing to the blessed Godhead and more glorious to man kind, then Adam's sin ever was harmful."
"I can make all things well. I will make all things well. I shall make all things well; and you will see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well."
"Everything helpful for us to know and understand, our Lord will most kindly show us, and what it is through the teachings of the Church. He takes great pleasure in all men and women who strongly, humbly and willingly receive preaching and teaching in the Church."
"God is always fully satisfied with Himself and with all His works"
"He wants us to love Him, to take delight in Him and to endlessly rejoice in Him."
"Let me be your whole love, my precious child. Attend to me---I am enough for you. Rejoice in your Saviour and in your salvation."
"The Lord revealed the completeness of love in which we stand in His sight--yes, that He loves us as much now while we are here as He will do when we are there, before His blessed face. Our difficulty is because of failure of love on our part."
"It is a supreme act of friendship of our Lord that He looks after us so tenderly while we are in our sins; and furthermore, he touches us so very inwardly and shows us our sin by the sweet light of mercy and grace."
"Pray with all your heart, even if it seems to give you no pleasure, because it is helpful, even though you don't feel it. Pray with all your heart, even when you feel nothing, though you see nothing. For in dryness and in barrenness, in sickness and in weakness, then your prayers are most please to God."
"God teaches us to pray and firmly trust we shall have what we pray for; because He regards us with love and wants us to partner in His good work."
"It is proper for us, both through nature and through grace, to long and desire with all our might to know ourselves wand in this full knowledge we shall truly and clearly know our God in fullness of endless joy."
"Man is changeable in this life and falls into sin through frailty and being overcome. During this time he is in turmoil, sorrow and misery and the cause is his blindness---because He does not see God, for if He saw God truly and continually, He would have no harmful feelings nor any sort of promptings the the cravings that lead to sin."
"The lack in not in God, but it is on our part; for through sin and wretchedness we have in us a wretched and continual resistance to peace and to love."
"Mercy works sweetly through love by grace, mingled with abundant pity because mercy works for our safekeeping. Love never looks away from us nor does the operation of mercy ever cease."
"Without love we cannot live. Our life is grounded and rooted in love and without it, we perish."
"We are not blessedly safe and in peace until we have our full contentment with God, His love, His works, His judgements, with ourselves, and with fellow Christians. God's goodness does this in us. God is our true peace."
"While we are in this life, we have a marvellous mixture of both happiness and sorrow. We have in us our risen Jesus and the misery of Adam's falling."
"We ought to rejoice greatly that God dwells in our souls and can rejoice much more greatly that our souls dwell in God. Our soul is made the be the dwelling place of God!"
"Our soul sits in God in true rest and our soul stands in God in sure strength and our soul is rooted in God's endless love."
"We cannot come to knowledge of our soul until we first have knowledge of God, our creator to whom it is united. For full understanding, we must long to know our own soul wisely and truly. Through grace and by the Spirit we shall know them both."
"As truly as God is our father, so truly is God our mother. Jesus is our true mother, feeding us not with milk but with Himself, opening His side to us and claiming all our love."
"Jesus wants us to have the nature of a child, always hurrying to him in our need."
"We shall know that in spite of our grievous sin, his love for us remains intact, and we were never of any less value in His sight. Strong and marvellous is that love which cannot, nor will not be broken by our transgressions."
"He wants us to behave like a child, for when it is upset or frightened it runs quickly to it's mother for help as fast as he can, so Jesus wants us to run saying, 'My gracious mother, Jesus, take pity on me. I have made myself dirty and unlike you. I neither can nor may put this right except with Your very own help and grace.'"
"As long as we are mixed up with any aspect of sin, we shall never see clearly the blessed face of our Lord."
"It is for us to have three kinds of knowledge; the first is to know our Lord God, the second and third is to know ourselves--- what we are through Him and His grace and what we are in regards to our sin and weakness."
"Flee hastily from all that is not good and fall on our Lord's breast like a child on it's mother's bosom. With our whole heart and mind, knowing our feebleness, knowing God's goodness and love, seeking salvation in Him alone."
"It is God's will that we recognize sin, and pray earnestly and labour willingly and seek humbly for instructions so that we do not fall blindly into it; and if we fall, that we rise quickly, for to turn from God for any length of time through sin is the greatest pain that any soul may have."
"Whether we are unclean or pure, His love for us is the same. Whether in joy or in sorrow, He never wants us to flee from Him."
"Everything that is contrary to love and peace is from the devil. The enemy looses many times over from our rising from our falls through God's love and our humility. Acknowledge your wretchedness, then flee to your Lord. Let us fly to our Lord and we shall be comforted and made clean."
"Our Lord in his mercy shows us our sin and weakness by the sweet, gracious light of Himself---the light of His grace and mercy."
"He steadfastly waits for us and with unchanging demeanour, for He wants us to turn to Him and be united to Him in love as He is to us."
"When we have fallen through frailty or blindness, our kind Lord touches us, moves us and calls us; He doesn't want us to remain like this, nor does he want us to be greatly pre-occupied with self-accusation or too full of misery, but instead to swiftly focus our thoughts on Him. For He waits for us and hastens to have us with Him, for we are His joy and delight. He is our salve and our life."
Julian ends her book with these words which brought a song to my heart...
"To those who wish to be His faithful lovers. These are revelations of the unutterable love of God in Jesus Christ. Revealed to a dear lover of His and are for all his dear friends and lovers whose hearts like hers do flame in the love our our dearest Jesus."
*Julian (the name she took at a nun) lived 1343-1416. Most of her life she lived as an Anchorite attached to a church in Norwich, England. She lived smack-dab in the midst of the most intense times when the Black Plague hit England. She certainly knew deep personal and communal suffering. For those historians who have said that Julian was a 'universalist' or didn't mention hell or sin in her writings... this is simply not true (100% false, in fact). I have read her works twice. She mentions all basic concepts of sin, hell, and the distinct need for salvation through God's only Son, Jesus. Although, I do not agree with every single word she has written... her basic theology and heart of faith matches my faith and orthodox, historical Christianity beautifully. I am convinced, she is most certainly my sister in Christ and waiting in that great cloud of witnesses, urging us onward!