Customer Reviews

A Lesson of Love: The Revelations of Julian of Norwich(Unabridged)

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Whether you're new to Dame Julian or not, Fr John-Julian's translation may soon become one of your favorite books. He's taken Julian's profound message of Optimism and Love and made it even more hope-filled for those of us in today's very real world.
I have dozens of books about and *by* Julian. This is the only one I read every day.

This new edition of Fr. John-Julian's translation of Julian's revelations is a rare gift. Julian's theology gives us hope, and this edition gives us a way into her thinking. This edition is intended for devotional use, but is excellent for study as well. The translation makes her writing accessible for the modern reader, and the work is divided into easily-digested daily readings. If you have been wanting to read Julian but have found other editions daunting, please try this one. You won't be sorry.

This translation of the Revelations is different from all others in several ways: Julian's complex text is broken up into short, powerful readings for daily use; and it is translated not by an academic medieval specialist, but by a person of faith who opened himself to receive God's revelations through Julian, and like her was transformed by immersion in the Blood.

It is, after all, very strange to be reading in the 21st century about a woman called Julian who, on her deathbed, requested and received a vision of Christ's very pain, so that she was able to enter into the experience of Crucifixion herself. We would never ask for or desire such a thing, but she made her prayer desiring such nearness of Christ as to feel his very wounds. She recovered, then spent the next 20 years trying to figure out what happened to her. Julian is no teenaged Bernadette, but a 30-year-old woman who underwent a visitation from the Divine. She made notes shortly afterwards, then prayed and meditated on her experience for two decades before setting down the Revelations in her maturity. Julian's book comes out of her prayer life, and it stands to reason that a modern translation of her work ought to come from the translator's prayer life too. Whatever knowledge a medievalist may bring to the enterprise, a great deal remains lost or hidden without the eyes of a mature faith. The translator of this volume brings his own deep experience of God to the task--including the imperative to translate rather than interpret, add or subtract.

The result is a clarity and depth never before revealed in Julian's simple but difficult writing. The reader gets the experience of encountering Julian directly, and through her, encountering the Holy One. Her insights are so revolutionary that we are only beginning to absorb their impact: God does not judge. God is pure love. God cannot and does not get angry with those the Spirit has touched. God is our Mother and our Father. God is nearer to us than our own soul.

Since his first encounter with Julian, the former Fr. John has seen his life completely transformed. He is now Fr. John-Julian, founder of the Order of Julian of Norwich. The last thing he planned was to be a monk, but he's been swept away by the River of God. Isn't that transformation from sin to love what we all want?

Come, encounter this remarkable woman through this meticulous translation. By reading a page a day, your spiritual journey will begin, then accelerate, and finally take off for riches unknown.

I confess that I have fallen in love with Julian of Norwich again because of this readable and beautiful translation, with its helpful format of daily readings. Visually, Julian's words have been arranged in an insightful, poetic format, creating an open and almost breathable space on every page... space that gently invites the reader into his or her own insights. Reading Julian's experiences through this translation, I have found myself almost holding my breath as my heart and mind have become deeply moved and challenged because I am falling in love with God and Christ again. Thankfully, the format of daily readings allows the needed space to breathe, pause, pray and integrate not only what has happened to Julian but for what also can happen to the reader through her words.

I am so glad to have discovered Julian of Norwich. A very different perspective, very uplifting.