Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet, c. 1440
This post is the third in a series about Julian of Norwich and contains the voice of Helene Scheck, associate professor of English at the State University of New York, Albany, who kindly agreed to read for us in Julian’s Middle English. Dr. Scheck is the author of Reform and Resistance: Formations of Female Subjectivity in Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Culture along with a number of articles on women writers and thinkers of the early Middle Ages. Most recently she has co-edited New Readings on Women and Early Medieval English Literature and Culture (Amsterdam University Press, 2019). Dr. Scheck’s scholarship focuses on women’s intellectual culture in northern Europe during the early Middle Ages (ca. 750–1050).
The text is taken from “The Shewings of Julian of Norwich,” edited by Georgia Ronan Crampton (TEAMS Middle English Texts Series, 1994). Available online at https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/the-shewings-of-julian-of-norwich-part-1 The text, with Dr. Scheck’s translation, follows.
[This is Julian’s overview of chapter five in the long text:
How God is to us everything that is gode, tenderly wrappand us; and all thing that is made, in regard to Almighty it is nothing; and how man hath no rest till he nowteth himselfe and all thing for the love of God.
translated…..How God is to us everything that is good, tenderly embracing us; and how all that is made, in comparison to the Almighty, is nothing; and each person has no rest until they deny themself and all creation for love of God.]
In this same time our Lord shewed to me a ghostly sight of His homely love-
ing. I saw that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable for us. He is
oure clotheing, that for love wrappeth us, halsyth us, and all becloseth us for
tender love, that He may never leeve us, being to us althing that is gode as to
myne understondyng. Also in this He shewed a littil thing the quantitye of an
hesil nutt in the palme of my hand, and it was as round as a balle. I lokid there
upon with eye of my understondyng and thowte, What may this be? And it was
generally answered thus: It is all that is made. I mervellid how it might lesten, for
methowte it might suddenly have fallen to nowte for littil. And I was answered
in my understondyng, It lesteth and ever shall, for God loveth it; and so all thing
hath the being be the love of God.
translated…..In this same time our Lord showed to me a spiritual vision of His familiar and ever-present loving. I saw that to us He is everything good and comforting. He is our clothing, which out of love wraps us, embraces us, and encloses us in its tender love, that He may never leave us, being to us everything that is good—as I understand the vision. Also in this [vision] He showed a little thing the size of a hazelnut in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. I looked on it with the eye of my understanding and thought: “What could this be?” And it was answered thus: “It is all of creation.” I marveled how it could survive, for I thought it might suddenly have come to nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: “It endures and ever shall, because God loves it; and so all things exist through the love of God.”
Thank you, Dr. Helene Scheck, for bringing us closer to Julian and her sensory experience of God through our own hearing.
What follows is also an entry into medieval experience through its religious symbols as they appear in our Gothic Revival cathedral. In this brief video our Dean and senior priest, Dr. Leander S. Harding, shows us the carvings on the aumbry in our Lady Chapel.
Please consider joining us for these Cathedral Arts Programs and Events on Zoom in the next few weeks:
Writing Your Recovery with Diane Cameron on Tuesday, June 23 at 7 PM. Free. Click HERE to register.
The Dean's Forum with special guest, Dr. Carol Zaleski on June 30 and July 7, at 7 PM. Made possible through our covenant with the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, also in Albany. Suggested donation. Click HERE to register.