All
Will be Well

Readings from the

Revelations
of Divine Love

of

Julian of Norwich

Contents

Preface 3 

All Will be Well 5 

Ash Wednesday 5 

Thursday 5 

Friday 5 

Saturday 6 

The First Sunday of Lent 7 

Monday 7 

Tuesday 7 

Wednesday 8 

Thursday 9 

Friday 9 

Saturday 10 

The Second Sunday of Lent 11 

Monday 12 

Tuesday 12 

Wednesday 13 

Thursday 14 

Friday 14 

Saturday 15 

The Third Sunday of Lent 15 

Monday 15 

Tuesday 17 

Wednesday 18 

Thursday 19 

Friday 20 

Saturday 20 

The Fourth Sunday of Lent 21 

Monday 22 

Tuesday 23 

Wednesday 23 

Thursday 24 

Friday 25 

Saturday 25 

The Fifth Sunday of Lent 26 

Monday 26 

Tuesday 27 

Wednesday 28 

Thursday 29 

Friday 30 

Saturday 30 

Palm Sunday 31 

Monday 31 

Tuesday 32 

Wednesday 33 

Maundy Thursday 34 

Good Friday 35 

Saturday 35 

Easter Day 36 

Preface

This short book is offered in the hope that it might prove of some use in helping you to reflect on the Passion of Christ during the season of Lent. It is simply a series of brief quotations from the work of Julian of Norwich together with a short bible passage for each day (I've used the New Jerusalem Bible, but use the version that you prefer) which in some way might help you to see the truths revealed in Julian's writings (if a little obliquely on occasion). How you use these selections is entirely up to you but I hope that you might find them a helpful aid to your daily Lenten devotions. 

Julian of Norwich was an anhcoress at the church of St Julian in Norwich during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. During an illness she received a series of intense revelations of Jesus Christ. These ended by the time she recovered in May 1373. She wrote down an account of the visions she received in what is now the known as the Short Text of the Revelations of Divine Love. This is the first book, in English, known to have been written by a woman. Some twenty or so years later she revised and expanded this text into the Long Version.

For this book I have chosen to quote from the shorter text, partly because it was easier and quicker to read the entire text and thus make the selection of passages, and partly because it seemed to me that it was likely to be closer to the original experience of Julian.

Quotations of Julian's Revelations of Divine Love are taken from Julian of Norwich: Showings, translated by Edmund Colledge, OSA and James Walsh, SJ, copyright © 1978 by the Missionary Society of St Paul the Apostle in the State of New York. 

Bible quotations are from the New Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Company, Inc. 

All Will be Well

Ash Wednesday

I desired three graces by the gift of God. The first was to have recollection of Christ's Passion. The second was a bodily sickness, and the third was to have, of God's gift, three wounds.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter I

***

That I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being moulded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3.10-11

Thursday

But it was because I wanted to go on living to love God better and longer, and living so, obtain grace to know and love God more as he is in the bliss of heaven.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter ii

***

Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or my death. Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would be a positive gain. On the other hand again, if to be alive in the body gives me an opportunity for fruitful work, I do not know which I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and to be with Christ, and this is by far the stronger desire – and yet for your sake to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need.

Philippians 1.20b-24

Friday

I accepted it that at that time our Lord Jesus wanted, out of his courteous love, to show me comfort before my temptations began; for it seemed to me that I might well be tempted by devils, by God's permission and with his protection, before I died. With this sight of his blessed Passion and with his divinity, of which I speak as I understand, I saw that this was strength enough for me, yes, and for all living creatures who will be protected from all the devils of hell and from all their spiritual enemies. 

Showings (Short Text), Chapter iii 

***

In you, Yahweh, I have taken refuge,
let me never be put to shame,
in your saving justice deliver me, rescue me,
turn your ear to me, make haste.

Psalm 31.1-2

Saturday

He showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, and I perceived that it was as round as any ball. I looked at it and thought: What can this be? And I was given this general answer: It is everything which is made. I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that it was so little that it could suddenly fall into nothing. And I was amazed in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the love of God.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter iv 

***

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him. What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. 

John 1.1-5

The First Sunday of Lent

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel from God saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.'

Mark 1.14-15

Monday

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second is that he loves it, the third is that God preserves it. But what is that to me? It is that God is the Creator and the lover and the protector.  

Showings (Short Text), Chapter iv 

***

Yahweh, your faithful love is in the heavens,
your constancy reaches to the clouds,
your saving justice is like towering mountains,
your judgements like the mighty deep. 

Yahweh, you support both man and beast;
how precious, God, is your faithful love.
So the children of Adam
take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 

They feast on the bounty of your house,
you let them drink from your delicious streams;
in you is the source of life,
by your light we see the light. 

Psalm 36.5-9

Tuesday

For … those who deliberately occupy themselves with earthly business, constantly seeking worldly well-being, have not God's rest in their hearts and souls; for they love and seek their rest in this thing which is so little and in which there is no rest, and do not know God who is almighty, all wise and all good, for he is true rest.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter iv 

***

So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?" It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' 

Matthew 6.31-34

Wednesday

If I pay special attention to myself, I am nothing at all; but in general I am in the unity of love with all my fellow Christians. For it is in this unity of love that the life consists of all men who will be saved. For God is everything that is good, and God has made everything that is made, and God loves everything that he has made, and if any man or woman withdraws his love from any of his fellow Christians, he does not love at all, because he has not love towards all. 

Showings (Short Text), Chapter vi 

***

Though I command languages both human and angelic –  if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains –  if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever. 

Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.

Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.

As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Thursday

He who … generally loves all his fellow Christians loves all, and he who loves thus is safe. And thus will I love, and thus do I love, and thus I am safe – I write as the representative of my fellow Christians – and the more I love in this way whilst I am here, the more I am like the joy which is the God who out of his endless love willed to become our brother and suffer for us.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter vi 

***

Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.' 

Matthew 22.37-40

Friday

Our Lord ...brought into my mind and showed me a part of the devil's malice and all his impotence, and this by showing me that his Passion is the overcoming of the fiend. God showed me that he still has the same malice as he had before the Incarnation, and he works as hard, and he sees as constantly as he did before that all chosen souls escape him to God's glory. And in that is all the devil's sorrow; for everything which God permits him to do turns to joy for us and to pain and shame for him. 

Showings (Short Text), Chapter viii 

***

And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin comes from the Law. Thank God, then, for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. So, my dear brothers, keep firm and immovable, always abounding in energy for the Lord's work, being sure that in the Lord none of your labours is wasted. 

I Corinthians 15.54-58

Saturday

After this our Lord revealed to me a supreme spiritual delight in my soul. In this delight I was filled full of everlasting surety, and I was powerfully secured without any fear. This sensation was so welcome and so dear to me that I was at peace, at ease and at rest, so that there was nothing upon earth which could have afflicted me.

This lasted for only a time, and then I was changed and left to myself, oppressed and weary of myself, ruing my life so that I scarcely had the patience to go on living. I felt that there was no ease or comfort for me except hope, faith and love, and truly I felt very little of this. And then presently God gave me again comfort and rest for my soul, delight and security so blessed and so powerful that there was no fear, no sorrow, no pain, physical or spiritual, that one could suffer that might have disturbed me. And then again I felt the pain, and then afterwards the joy and the delight, now the one and now the other, again and again, I suppose about twenty times. And in the joy I could have said with Paul: Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ; and in the pain, I could have said with Peter: Lord, save me, I am perishing. 

This vision was shown to me to teach me to understand that every man needs to experience this, to be comforted at one time, and at another to fail and to be left to himself. God wishes us to know that he keeps us safe all the time, in joy and in sorrow, and that he loves us as much in sorrow as in joy.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter ix 

***

After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us? Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts? Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice who can condemn? Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died -- yes and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God's right hand -- and who is adding his plea for us? Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence; as scripture says: 

For your sake we are being massacred all day long,
treated as sheep to be slaughtered?

No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us. For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8.31-39

The Second Sunday of Lent

He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. What gain, then, is it for anyone to win the whole world and forfeit his life? And indeed what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? For if anyone in this sinful and adulterous generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'

Mark 8.34-38

Monday

Sometimes a man is left to himself for the profit of his soul, and neither the one nor the other is caused by sin. For in this time I committed no sin for which I ought to have been left to myself, nor did I deserve these sensations of joy; but God gives joy freely, as it pleases him, and sometimes he allows us to be in sorrow, and both come from his love.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter ix 

***

Wherefore, so that I should not get above myself, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to batter me and prevent me from getting above myself. About this, I have three times pleaded with the Lord that it might leave me; but he has answered me, 'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.' It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong. 

2 Corinthians 12.7-10

Tuesday

This revelation of Christ's pains filled me full of pains, for I know well that he suffered only once, but it was now his will to show it to me and fill me with its recollection, as I had asked before. My mother, who was standing there with the others, held up her hand in front of my face to close my eyes, for she thought that I was already dead or had that moment died; and this greatly increased my sorrow, for despite all my pains, I did not want to be hindered from seeing, because of my love for him. As with regard to either, in all this time that Christ was present to me, I felt no pain except for Christ's pains. 

Showings (Short Text), Chapter x 

***

It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God's message, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people. It was God's purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ. And it is for this reason that I labour, striving with his energy which works in me mightily. 

Colossians 1.24-29

Wednesday

But there is no greater physical pain than this; how could I suffer greater pain than to see him who is all my life, all my bliss and all my joy suffer? Here I felt truly that I loved Christ so much more than myself that I thought it would have been a greater comfort if my body had died.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter x 

***

For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son. And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God.' 

John 3.16-21

Thursday

Thus I chose Jesus for my heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time. No other heaven was pleasing to me than Jesus, who will be my bliss when I am there; and this has always been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus as my heaven in all times of suffering and of sorrow. And that has taught me that I should always do so, and choose only him to be my heaven in well-being and in woe.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xi 

***

Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God. 

1 Corinthians 2.1-5

Friday

Then our Lord put a question to me: Are you well satisfied that I suffered for you? Yes, good Lord, I said; all my thanks to you you, good Lord, blessed may you be! If you are satisfied, our Lord said, I am satisfied. It is a joy and a bliss and an endless delight to me that ever I suffered my Passion for you, for if I could suffer more, I would.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xii 

***

'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.' 

Matthew 11.28-30

Saturday

The first heaven, which is the Father's bliss, appeared to me as a heaven, and it was full of bliss. For Jesus had great joy in all the deeds which he has done for our salvation, and therefore we are his, not only through our redemption but also by his Father's courteous gift. We are his bliss, we are his reward, we are his honour, we are his crown.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xii 

***

Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'In truth I tell you, it is hard for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.' When the disciples heard this they were astonished. 'Who can be saved, then?' they said. Jesus gazed at them. 'By human resources', he told them, 'this is impossible; for God everything is possible.' Then Peter answered and said, 'Look, we have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?' Jesus said to them, 'In truth I tell you, when everything is made new again and the Son of man is seated on his throne of glory, you yourselves will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life. 'Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'

Matthew 19.23-30

The Third Sunday of Lent

Jesus [said], 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?' But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said.

John 2.19-22

Monday

What I am describing now is so great a joy to Jesus that he counts as nothing his labour and bitter sufferings and his cruel and shameful death. And in these words: If I could suffer more, I would suffer more, I saw truly that if he could die as often as once for every man who is to be saved, as he did once for all men, love would never let him rest till he had done it. And when he had done it, he would count it all as nothing for love, for everything seems only little to him in comparison with his love.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xii 

***

Look, my servant will prosper, will grow great, will rise to great heights.

As many people were aghast at him
– he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like a man –
so many nations will be astonished
and kings will stay tight-lipped before him,
seeing what had never been told them,
learning what they had not heard before.
Who has given credence to what we have heard?
And who has seen in it a revelation of Yahweh's arm?
Like a sapling he grew up before him,
like a root in arid ground.
He had no form or charm to attract us,
no beauty to win our hearts;
he was despised, the lowest of men,
a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,
one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze,
despised, for whom we had no regard.
Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing,
ours the sorrows he was carrying,
while we thought of him as someone being punished
and struck with affliction by God;
whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions,
crushed because of our guilt;
the punishment reconciling us fell on him,
and we have been healed by his bruises.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each taking his own way,
and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion
of all of us to bear on him.
Ill-treated and afflicted,
he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb led to the slaughter-house,
like a sheep dumb before its shearers
he never opened his mouth.

Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken.
Which of his contemporaries was concerned
at his having been cut off from the land of the living,
at his having been struck dead for his people's rebellion?
He was given a grave with the wicked,
and his tomb is with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
had spoken no deceit.
It was Yahweh's good pleasure to crush him with pain;
if he gives his life as a sin offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his life,
and through him Yahweh's good pleasure will be done.

After the ordeal he has endured,
he will see the light and be content.
By his knowledge, the upright one, my servant will justify many
by taking their guilt on himself.

Hence I shall give him a portion with the many,
and he will share the booty with the mighty,
for having exposed himself to death
and for being counted as one of the rebellious,
whereas he was bearing the sin of many
and interceding for the rebellious.

Isaiah 52.13-53.12

Tuesday

After this teaching, simple, courteous, joyful, again and again our Lord said to me: I am he who is highest. I am he whom you love. I am he in whom you delight. I am he whom you serve. I am he for whom you long. I am he whom you desire. I am he whom you intend. I am he who is all. I am he whom Holy Church preaches and teaches to you.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiii 

***

Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as Death,
passion as relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fire,
a flame of Yahweh himself.
Love no flood can quench,
no torrents drown.
Were a man to offer all his family wealth
to buy love,
contempt is all that he would gain. 

Song of Songs 8.6-7

Wednesday

After this our Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had for him before; and I saw that nothing hindered me but sin, and I saw that this is true of us all in general, and it seemed to me that if there had been no sin, we should all have been pure and as like our Lord as he created us. And so in my folly before this time I often wondered why, through the great and prescient wisdom of God, sin was not prevented; for it seemed to me that then all would have been well.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiii 

***

When you were the servants of sin, you felt no obligation to uprightness, and what did you gain from living like that? Experiences of which you are now ashamed, for that sort of behaviour ends in death. But, now you are set free from sin and bound to the service of God, your gain will be sanctification and the end will be eternal life. For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 6.20-23

Thursday

He answered with these words, and said: sin is necessary. In the word 'sin', our Lord brought generally to my mind all which is not good: the shameful contempt and complete denial of himself which he endured for us in this life and in his death, and all the pains and passions, spiritual and bodily, of all his creatures. For we are all in part denied, and we ought to be denied, following our master Jesus until we are fully purged, that is to say until we have completely denied our mortal flesh and all our inward affections which are not good.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiii 

***

We are well aware that the Law is spiritual: but I am a creature of flesh and blood sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate. While I am acting as I do not want to, I still acknowledge the Law as good, so it is not myself acting, but the sin which lives in me. And really, I know of nothing good living in me -- in my natural self, that is -- for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want – that is what I do. But every time I do what I do not want to, then it is not myself acting, but the sin that lives in me. 

So I find this rule: that for me, where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side. In my inmost self I dearly love God's law, but I see that acting on my body there is a different law which battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? God – thanks be to him – through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So it is that I myself with my mind obey the law of God, but in my disordered nature I obey the law of sin.

Romans 7.14-25

Friday

And the beholding of this, with all the pains that ever were or ever will be – and of all this I understood Christ’s Passion for the greatest and surpassing pain – was shown to me in an instant, and quickly turned into consolation. For our good Lord would not have the soul frightened by this ugly sight. But I did not see sin, for I believe that it has no kind of substance, no share in being, nor can it be recognized except by the pains which it causes. And it seems to me that this pain is something for a time, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy; for the Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and that is his blessed will for all who will be saved. He comforts readily and sweetly with his words, and says: But all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiii 

***

So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy – not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has been revealed only by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus. He has abolished death, and he has brought to light immortality and life through the gospel, in whose service I have been made herald, apostle and teacher. 

That is why I am experiencing my present sufferings; but I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have put my trust, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to safeguard until that Day what I have entrusted to him.

2 Timothy 1.8-12

Saturday

These words were revealed to me very tenderly, showing no kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved. So it would be most unkind of me to blame God or marvel at him on account of my sins, since he does not blame me for sin. So I saw how Christ has compassion on us because of sin; and just as I was before filled full of pain and compassion on account of Christ's Passion, so I was now in a measure filled with compassion for all my fellow Christians, and then I saw that every kind of compassion which one has for one's fellow Christians in love is Christ in us.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiii 

***

How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,' without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead. 

But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith. You believe in the one God – that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Fool! Would you not like to know that faith without deeds is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar? So you can see that his faith was working together with his deeds; his faith became perfect by what he did. In this way the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was considered as making him upright; and he received the name 'friend of God'.

You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified. There is another example of the same kind: Rahab the prostitute, was she not justified by her deeds because she welcomed the messengers and showed them a different way to leave? As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.

James 2.14-26

The Fourth Sunday of Lent

For this is how God loved the world:
he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to judge the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be judged;
but whoever does not believe is judged already,
because that person does not believe
in the Name of God's only Son.

John 3.16-18

Monday

I shall … [say] … to our Lord with very great fear: Ah, good Lord, how could all things be well, because of the great harm which has come through sin to your creatures? … And to this our blessed Lord answered, very meekly and with a most loving manner, and he showed me that Adam's sin was the greatest harm ever done or ever to be done until the end of the world. …

Furthermore, he taught me that I should contemplate his glorious atonement, for his atoning is more pleasing to the blessed divinity and more honourable for man's salvation, without comparison, than ever Adam's sin was harmful. So it is our blessed Lord's intention in this teaching that that we should pay heed to this: For since I have set right the greatest of harms, it is my will that you should know through this that I have set right everything which is less.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiv 

***

For, if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins. In addition, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable. 

In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead. Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him.

1 Corinthians 15.16-23

Tuesday

The saints in heaven wish to know nothing but what our Lord wishes to show them, and furthermore their love and their desire is governed according to our Lord's will; and so we ought to wish to be like him. And then we shall not wish or desire anything but the will of our Lord, for we are all one in God's intention.

And in this I was taught that we shall all rejoice only in our blessed saviour Jesus, and trust in him for everything.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xiv 

***

You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children – which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him. My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. 

Whoever treasures this hope of him purifies himself, to be as pure as he is. Whoever sins, acts wickedly, because all sin is wickedness. Now you are well aware that he has appeared in order to take sins away, and that in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins, and whoever sins has neither seen him nor recognised him.

1 John 3.1-6

Wednesday

And so our good Lord answered all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly in this fashion: I will make all things well, I shall make all things well, I may make all things well and I can make all things well; and you will see for yourself, that all things will be well.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xv 

***

We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good. He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory 

 After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8.28-31

Thursday

It is God's will that we pay great heed to all the deeds which he has performed, for he wishes us to know from them all which he will do; and he revealed to me by those words which he said: And you will see for yourself that every kind of thing will be well. I understand this in two ways: One is that I am well content that I do not know it; and the other is that I am glad and joyful because I shall know it. It is God's will that we should know in general that all will be well, but it is not God's will that we should know it now except as it applies to us for the present, and that is the teaching of Holy Church.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xv 

***

People should think of us as Christ's servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. In such a matter, what is expected of stewards is that each one should be found trustworthy. It is of no importance to me how you or any other human court may judge me: I will not even be the judge of my own self. It is true that my conscience does not reproach me, but that is not enough to justify me: it is the Lord who is my judge. For that reason, do not judge anything before the due time, until the Lord comes; he will bring to light everything that is hidden in darkness and reveal the designs of all hearts. Then everyone will receive from God the appropriate commendation. 

1 Corinthians 4.1-5

Friday

All this which I have now said and more which I shall presently say is solace against sin; for when I first saw that God does everything which is done, I did not see sin, and then I saw that all is well. But when God did show me sin it was then that he said: All will be well.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xvi 

***

Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power. Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens. That is why you must take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full. 

Ephesians 6.10-13

Saturday

Although our Lord revealed to me that I should sin, I understood everything to apply only to me. In this I conceived a gentle fear, and in answer to this our Lord said: I protect you very safely. This was said to me with more love and assurance of protection for my soul than I can or may tell. For just as it was revealed to me that I should sin, so was consolation revealed to me – assurance of protection for my fellow Christians.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xvii 

***

The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.
Taste and see that Yahweh is good. How blessed are those who take refuge in him. 

Fear Yahweh, you his holy ones; those who fear him lack for nothing.
Young lions may go needy and hungry, but those who seek Yahweh lack nothing good.

Come, my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
Who among you delights in life, longs for time to enjoy prosperity?

Psalm 34.7-12

The Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jesus [said] to them: 

Now the hour has come
for the Son of man to be glorified.
In all truth I tell you,
unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.
Anyone who loves his life loses it;
anyone who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life.

John 12.23-25

Monday

Sin is the sharpest scourge with which any chosen soul can be beaten, and this scourge belabours and breaks men and women, and they become so despicable in their own sight that it seems to them that they are fit for nothing but as it were to sink into hell; but when by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit contrition seizes them, then the Spirit turns bitterness into hope of God's mercy.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xvii 

***

This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. If we say that we share in God's life while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth. But if we live in light, as he is in light, we have a share in another's life, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us; if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil. If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us. My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright. He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.

1 John 1.5-2.2

Tuesday

The Holy Spirit leads him to confession, willing to reveal his sins, nakedly and truthfully, with great sorrow and great shame that he has so befouled God's fair image. … Though he be healed his wounds are not seen as wounds but as honours. And as sin is punished here with sorrow and penance, in contrary fashion it will be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our Lord God almighty, who does not wish anyone who comes there to lose his labours. … And so all shame will be turned into honour and into greater joy.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xvii 

***

One of the Pharisees invited him to a meal. When he arrived at the Pharisee's house and took his place at table, suddenly a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what sort of person it is who is touching him and what a bad name she has.' Then Jesus took him up and said, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' He replied, 'Say on, Master.' 'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. They were unable to pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him more?' Simon answered, 'The one who was let off more, I suppose.' Jesus said, 'You are right.'

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.' Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.' Those who were with him at table began to say to themselves, 'Who is this man, that even forgives sins?' But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'

Luke 7.36-50

Wednesday

If all the pain there is, in hell, in purgatory, on earth, death and other sufferings, were laid before me, together with sin, I should rather choose all that pain than sin. For sin is so vile and so much to be hated that it cannot be compared with any pain which is not sin. For everything is good, except sin, and nothing is wicked, except sin. Sin is neither death nor delight, but when a soul deliberately chooses sin, which is pain, to be his god, in the end he has nothing at all. That pain seems to me the cruellest hell, because the soul has not his God. A soul may have God in every pain, but not in sin.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xviii 

***

But what were once my assets I now through Christ Jesus count as losses. Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ and be given a place in him, with the uprightness I have gained not from the Law, but through faith in Christ, an uprightness from God, based on faith, that I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being moulded to the pattern of his death, striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead. Not that I have secured it already, nor yet reached my goal, but I am still pursuing it in the attempt to take hold of the prize for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not reckon myself as having taken hold of it; I can only say that forgetting all that lies behind me, and straining forward to what lies in front, I am racing towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3.7-14

Thursday

After this our Lord revealed to me about prayers. I saw two conditions in those who pray, according to what I have felt myself. One is that they will not pray for anything at all but for the thing that is God's will and to his glory; another is that they apply themselves always and with all their might to entreat the thing which is his will and to his glory. And that is what I have understood from the teaching of Holy Church; for this what our Lord too taught me now, to accept faith, hope and love as gifts from God, and for us to preserve ourselves in them to the end of life.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xix 

***

'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test,
but save us from the Evil One.

Matthew 6.7-13

Friday

Prayer unites the soul to God, for although the soul may always be like God in nature and substance, it is often unlike him in condition, through human sin. Prayer makes the soul like God when the soul wills as God wills; then it is like God in condition, as it is in nature. And so he teaches us to pray and to have firm trust that new shall have what we pray for, because everything which is done would be done, even though we had never prayed for it. But God's love is so great that he regards us as partners in his good work; and so he moves us to pray for what it pleases him to do, for whatever prayer or good desire comes to us by his gift he will repay us for, and give us eternal reward.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xix 

***

Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you lack it; so you kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. It is because you do not pray that you do not receive; when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge your passions.

James 4.1-3

Saturday

For when a soul is tempted, troubled and left to itself in its unrest, that is the time for it to pray and to make itself simple and obedient to God. Unless the soul be obedient, no kind of prayer makes God supple to it; for God's love does not change, but during the time that a man is in sin he is so weak, so foolish, so unloving that he can love neither God nor himself.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xix 

***

Surely Yahweh's mercies are not over,
his deeds of faithful love not exhausted;
every morning they are renewed;
great is his faithfulness!
'Yahweh is all I have,' I say to myself,
'and so I shall put my hope in him.'

Yahweh is good to those who trust him,
to all who search for him.
It is good to wait in silence
for Yahweh to save.
It is good for someone to bear the yoke
from a young age,

to sit in solitude and silence
when it weighs heavy,
to lay one's head in the dust –
maybe there is hope –
to offer one's cheek to the striker,
to have one's fill of disgrace!

For the Lord will not reject
anyone for ever.
If he brings grief, he will have pity
out of the fullness of his faithful love,
for it is not for his own pleasure
that he torments and grieves the human race.

Lamentations 3.22-33

Palm Sunday

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of David our father! Hosanna in the highest heavens!'

Mark 11.8-10

Monday

As God reasoned with me – 'Suddenly you will be taken' – I saw how he rewards men for their patience in awaiting the time of his will, and how men have patience to endure throughout the span of their lives, because they do not know when the time for them to die will come. This is very profitable, because if they knew when that would be, they would set a limit on their patience. Then, too, it is God's will that so long as the soul is in the body it should seem to a man that he is always on the point of being taken. For all this life and all the longing we have is only an instant of time, and when we are suddenly taken into bliss out of pain, it will be nothing.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xx 

***

Then he told them a parable, 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time." But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?" So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God.'

Luke 12.16-21

Tuesday

In this blessed revelation I was truly taught that any man or woman who voluntarily chooses God in his lifetime may be sure that he too is chosen. Pay true heed to this, for it is indeed God's will for us to be as certain in our trust to have the bliss of heaven whilst we are here as we shall be certain of it when we are there.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xx

***

This is my commandment:
love one another, as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants,
because a servant does not know
the master's business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me,
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
so that the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you is to love one another.

John 15.12-17

Wednesday

Our Lord opened my spiritual eyes, and … I saw my soul as wide as if it were a kingdom, and … it seemed to me as if it were a fine city. In the midst of this city sits our Lord Jesus, true God and true man …

The place which Jesus takes in our soul he will nevermore vacate, for in us is his home of homes, and it is the greatest delight for him to dwell there.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xxii

***

On that day
you will know that I am in my Father
and you in me and I in you.
Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them
is the one who loves me;
and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.'

Judas – not Judas Iscariot – said to him, 'Lord, what has happened, that you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?' Jesus replied:

'Anyone who loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him
and make a home in him.
Anyone who does not love me does not keep my words.
And the word that you hear is not my own:
it is the word of the Father who sent me.

John 14.20-24

Maundy Thursday

And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as I am taught by God's revelation. Wretchedness is everything which is not good, the spiritual blindness that we fall into by our first sin, and all that follows from that wretchedness, sufferings and pains, spiritual or physical, and everything on earth or elsewhere which is not good. And then concerning this it may be asked: What are we? and to this I answer: If everything were separated from us which is not good, we should be good. When wretchedness is separated from us, God and the soul are wholly at unity and God and man are wholly one. 

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xxiii

***

We are always full of confidence, then, realising that as long as we are at home in the body we are exiled from the Lord, guided by faith and not yet by sight; we are full of confidence, then, and long instead to be exiled from the body and to be at home with the Lord. And so whether at home or exiled, we make it our ambition to please him. For at the judgement seat of Christ we are all to be seen for what we are, so that each of us may receive what he has deserved in the body, matched to whatever he has done, good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5.6-10

Good Friday

For love makes power and wisdom very humble to us; for just as by God's courtesy he forgets our sin from the time that we repent, just so does he wish us to forget our sins and all our depression and all our doubtful fears.

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xxiv

***

So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; it is through him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God's favour in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God's glory. Not only that; let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding that hardship develops perseverance, and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope, and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless. You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die. So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

Romans 5.1-11

Saturday

God wants us always to be strong in our love, and peaceful and restful as he is towards us, and he wants us to be, for ourselves and for our fellow Christians, what he is for us. Amen.

The end of the book of Julian of Norwich

Showings (Short Text), Chapter xxv

***

I give you a new commandment:
love one another;
you must love one another
just as I have loved you.
It is by your love for one another,
that everyone will recognise you
as my disciples.

John 13.34-35

Easter Day

When they looked they saw that the stone -- which was very big -- had already been rolled back. On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement. But he said to them, 'There is no need to be so amazed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him.

Mark 16.4-6

Copyright © 2015 by Peter M Down. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. 