St John and Julian of Norwich

Portret van een Vrouw
Rogier van der Weyden

IN this same time our Lord shewed me a spiritual sight of His homely loving.
I saw
that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us:
He is our clothing that for love wrappeth us,
claspeth us,
and all encloseth us for tender love,
that He may never leave us;
being to us all-thing that is good,
as to mine understanding.

Julian of Norwich
Revelations of Divine Love
Revelation One; Chapter 5

I recorded some music to commemorate Julian's day in the Anglican Calendar.
The pieces are a slighter rawer than my two earlier this year. I wanted to treat them more, but they wanted to stay clear; hence the sound is a bit sharper and closer. There are a few more background noises: clicks, clunks, birds, crickets, cars. I think it suits Julian that the sound is a bit more rustic.

Anyway, you can hear the pieces here.



We had a reading of her work at Mass today, from which the above is taken.

Although I had read the above before, today I heard it read aloud; a very different experience to that of last year.
I understood it as an expansion on:

God is love;
and he that remains in love
remains in God,
and God remains in him.
1 John 4:16

Where John says "love", Julian says: "everything that is good and comfortable for us". She describes it almost in terms of sensation. She then goes on to describe God's love for us in terms of a hug:

Wrappeth us,
claspeth us,
and all encloseth us

It is an eternal hug:

He may never leave us

John at the end of his first letter informs us

This is the true God, and eternal life
1 John 5:20

I know my above writing is a bit shallow, that it seems rather obvious, and probably pointless for me to point out. But sometimes things can be other thought and over writ.