Revelations of Divine Love

Julian introduces herself as a “simple, uneducated creature” (42) to whom God granted a series of revelations or “showings.” She explains that the showings happened as a result of asking God for three spiritual gifts: to perceive Jesus’s Passion vividly; to receive bodily sickness while still young; and to receive three wounds.

Julian longs to feel and understand the Passion of Christ more strongly and to become one with Jesus, Mary, and the disciples. She desires to become mortally ill, and yet recover, so that her desire for earthly happiness would be broken and she would receive the mercy of God and live a more virtuous life. She asks God for “three wounds”—the wound of true contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wound of an earnest longing for God. 

Julian becomes seriously ill—an illness she believes is sent to her by God—when she is 30-and-a-half years old. She lies ill for three days and three nights, is given Last Rites, and continues to linger on for two days and two nights.

A priest is summoned to be with her at her death. The priest shows her a crucifix for her comfort. The crucifix seems to glow, and everything else in the room seems ugly. Then suddenly Julian feels well again, although she still thinks she will die (and desires to do so). Then it occurs to her that she should ask God for the “second wound”—fellow-suffering with Jesus in his Passion. 

Suddenly, Julian sees blood trickling down from the crown of thorns on the crucifix. Intuiting that Jesus himself is showing her this revelation, she is filled with a joyful anticipation of heaven and a sense of wonder that God deigned to be “familiar” with sinful man. Julian then has a mental vision of the Virgin Mary and is filled with a feeling of reverence for the mother of Jesus. 

Julian has a vision of a round object the size of a hazel nut, representing all of creation. Although small and fragile, God has preserved it in his infinite love and care. She realizes that God is everything to us, our supreme good, and we will never be happy until there is nothing separating us from him. We therefore need to acknowledge the relative insignificance of all created things in order to love and be united to God. Julian understands that God is pleased when we approach him in a “familiar way,” acknowledging our own littleness and insufficiency. 

Julian discusses the proper way to pray to God. Although God is pleased when we approach him through intermediaries—such as the saints, the Virgin Mary, and human attributes of Christ such as the wounds and blood of his Passion—he is given full honor when we ask him to answer our prayers through his own goodness, because all the intermediaries have their origin in his goodness.

The goodness of God, indeed, is the “highest object of prayer and [...] reaches down to our lowest need” (49). God wants us to “cling to his goodness,” to be “clad” (49) in it, until our longing reaches its fulfillment in heaven.

By way of illustration, Julian sees a vision of the Virgin Mary beholding God with reverence and humility. Julian then sees Christ's head continue to bleed from the wounds of the crown of thorns. She is struck by the idea that “our God and Lord, who is so holy and awe-inspiring, is also so familiar and courteous” (51). However, this intimacy with God cannot be fully known during our earthly life—absent a special revelation—and must be understood through faith. Julian emphasizes that the content of her showings is consistent with the faith as taught by the Church. 

Julian recaps the contents of the previous showings in six points: the shedding of Jesus’s blood in his Passion; the revelation of Mary his mother; the eternity of the Godhead, power, wisdom, and love; the littleness of all creation when compared to the greatness of God; God made everything for love; and God is goodness itself which permeates all creation.

Julian declares her belief that the showings are meant for all Christians. She is moved with the desire to share her visions with other believers. Moreover, Julian deflects attention away from herself, the recipient of the visions, and urges us instead to contemplate God, who is the source of the visions and wishes them to be known by all. 

Julian professes her humility and littleness, insisting that she is not special because she received these showings. The important thing is to be good and to love God, whether one receives revelations or has only the “normal teaching of Holy Church” (54) as a guide. She stresses again that the showings are in harmony with the teachings of the Church.

Julian specifies the means by which the showings were given to her: by bodily sight; by words conveyed through the mind; and by spiritual sight. She admits that she is unable to express the visions as eloquently as she would like, but that God will help us receive them “more spiritually and more sweetly than [she] can or may tell it” (54).