Question

1. What is Julian trying to convey in these three brief showings (visages)?

2. What did you find helpful or of interest in her showings? Or, if not interesting nor helpful, then what troubled you? Why?

Answer 1

A) Message given by the Julian in her brief showings (Visages)

Abstract

Let us summarize the history and all the work related to Julian in brief

Julian received the revelations (based on sixteen visions) on the 8th of May 1373; they reflect her understanding of a deep truth about the love of Christ and his sufferings, and the reason behind them.

She sees Christ bleeding as it were in the time of His Passion (Norwich)

It is meant to open the reader’s eyes to his endless love, his compassion, and many reasons why one should trust in God.

According to the publication, when she was thirty years old, Julian becomes gravely ill and waits for her death while having her eyes fixed on the crucifix above her bed.

Her sight begins to fail, with shortness of breath, and she is certain that she is dying, when suddenly all her pain is taken away from her and she feels at ease.

At that moment, she desires to suffer with Jesus. She also sees Mary, and “the wisdom and the truth of her soul”.

God shows her “His homely loving” and she understands that God is everything that is good for humanity.

Nevertheless, she still wonders about the reasons as to why sin is allowed to exist, to which Jesus responds that in spite of sin, “all shall be well”

She learns about the trinity and how everything is based on that. Julian then refers to Jesus as a kind, loving mother because “we have our Being of Him”.

She also learns about the importance of being humble and meek. And in the end, God shows her the meaning and the reason behind everything all that he did and will do for his children is love.

B) Helpful finding that are interested in Julian Showings

After reading the text book you can find the below phenomenon thing and that can be summarized as below :

Julian of Norwich’s A Revelation of Love develops a sophisticated phenomenology of attention.

Understanding the key role that attention plays in Julian’s thought illuminates some of the most vexing questions that confront readers of her text, including her idiosyncratic adaptation of Augustine’s categories of bodily and spiritual sight.

A Revelation of Love describes how Julian’s attention is turned and sustained, as well as distracted, by the phenomena that arise through the course of her revelations.

In her reflections, she articulates both the anticipatory and retentive modalities of attention. She also acknowledges the limits of attention, particularly how pain can frustrate attempts to “pass over” the body