Julian Meditation 2

Here is the second collage of words from Julian of Norwich which I have compiled as part of reflecting on the her writings, particularly as used in the DVD featuring Alan Oldfield's paintings. They are intended to put Julian's words in new combinations while retaining her overall meaning:

There were times when I wanted to look away from the Cross, but I dared not.

The huge, hard, hurtful nails pulled the wounds wide open

The body sagged with the weight of its long hanging

Fair skin was driven deep into the tender flesh

Harsh striking all over the sweet body

The nails wrenched it as the weight of the body pulled against it

Shaken in sorrow and anguish and tribulation

As a cloth is shaken in the wind

The weeping and wailing of the soul

Bearing the loss of every kind of comfort except the deep, quiet keeping of God

I knew that while I gazed on the Cross I was safe and sound.

The holy joining made in heaven. God's son fell with Adam

Adam's old shirt - narrow, threadbare and short - our mortal flesh that God's son took upon him

So joined in love that the greatness of our love caused the greatness of his grief

The shame, the despising, the utter stripping he accepted

All the bodily and spiritual pains and passions of his creatures

Our Lord Jesus made nothing for us and we made nothing with him

In our joining together in love lies the life of all who shall be saved

In falling and rising again we are held close in one love

For our falling does not stop him loving us

I dared not look away. I was not willingly going to imperil my soul.

Flee to our Lord and we shall be comforted. Touch him and we shall be made clean.

Cling to him and we shall be safe and sound from every kind of danger.

For our courteous Lord wills that we should be at home with him

as heart may think or soul may desire .

Our soul rests in God its true peace, our soul stands in God its true strength,

and is deep-rooted in God for endless love.

He did not say 'You shall not be tempest-tossed, you shall not be work-weary,

you shall not be discomforted'.

But he did say, 'You shall not be overcome.'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indelible Grace - All Must Be Well.