In the Fourteenth Revelation, Julian of Norwich writes:
And all this our lord brought suddenly to my mind, and shewed these words and said:
“I am the ground of thy beseeching. First it is my will that thou have it, and next I make thee to will it, and next I make thee to beseech it—and thou beseeches it! How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?”
In an astounding moment, the Lord completely inverts the idea that prayer is initiated in any way by Julian with the Revelation that it is entirely his own idea. He identifies himself as the instigator and basis of all prayer. First, in his great goodness, Christ wills to give her some grace, then he makes her conscious of the desire for it . . . Next, he inspires her and gives her the desire to enter into prayer in order to beseech it. And then, she actually does beseech it in her prayer. Finally, Christ asks Julian the all-important rhetorical question: “How could it then be that you would not receive what you were beseeching me for?” (since it was Christ himself who conceived the grace he wanted to give Julian in the first place!). Of course, this Revelation assumes that what Julian will be led to pray for will be to her most immediate benefit, as well as her eternal salvation, and will bring the greatest blessings upon those for whom she prays.
Julian became convinced that when we pray it is in response to God’s desire to grant what we most urgently need. Our prayers of beseeching do not cause graces and gifts to come to us from God. It is God’s own goodness, the ground of all that is, that initiates every good thing he ever chooses to give us. He is ready to give before we even ask.
Julian experienced “a mighty comfort” in receiving this divine illumination, especially in the first instance when Christ said, “I am the ground of thy beseeching,” and also in the following three). And in the fifth reason (“And thou beseeches it!”), Julian testifies that Christ showed the greatest delight in the eternal reward that he will give us for our beseeching in prayer. . . . As for the sixth reason, in which Christ said, “How should it then be?” (that the soul would not have what it beseeched), Julian realizes that the refusal of the Lord to grant our heartfelt prayer would be “unpossible.”
For it is the most unpossible [greatest impossibility] that may be that we should seek mercy and grace and not have it. For every thing that our good lord makes us beseech, he himself has ordained it to us from without beginning.
Julian experiences prayer in an entirely new and radically hope-filled way. She is sure that Christ wants all his “lovers on earth” to know how he directs our prayer, because “the more that we know, the more shall we beseech,” if we understand this teaching wisely, as our Lord intends.
Note: Quotations above and translations from Julian's Middle English are from my book: Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books).
And all this our lord brought suddenly to my mind, and shewed these words and said:
“I am the ground of thy beseeching. First it is my will that thou have it, and next I make thee to will it, and next I make thee to beseech it—and thou beseeches it! How should it then be that thou shouldst not have thy beseeching?”
In an astounding moment, the Lord completely inverts the idea that prayer is initiated in any way by Julian with the Revelation that it is entirely his own idea. He identifies himself as the instigator and basis of all prayer. First, in his great goodness, Christ wills to give her some grace, then he makes her conscious of the desire for it . . . Next, he inspires her and gives her the desire to enter into prayer in order to beseech it. And then, she actually does beseech it in her prayer. Finally, Christ asks Julian the all-important rhetorical question: “How could it then be that you would not receive what you were beseeching me for?” (since it was Christ himself who conceived the grace he wanted to give Julian in the first place!). Of course, this Revelation assumes that what Julian will be led to pray for will be to her most immediate benefit, as well as her eternal salvation, and will bring the greatest blessings upon those for whom she prays.
Julian became convinced that when we pray it is in response to God’s desire to grant what we most urgently need. Our prayers of beseeching do not cause graces and gifts to come to us from God. It is God’s own goodness, the ground of all that is, that initiates every good thing he ever chooses to give us. He is ready to give before we even ask.
Julian experienced “a mighty comfort” in receiving this divine illumination, especially in the first instance when Christ said, “I am the ground of thy beseeching,” and also in the following three). And in the fifth reason (“And thou beseeches it!”), Julian testifies that Christ showed the greatest delight in the eternal reward that he will give us for our beseeching in prayer. . . . As for the sixth reason, in which Christ said, “How should it then be?” (that the soul would not have what it beseeched), Julian realizes that the refusal of the Lord to grant our heartfelt prayer would be “unpossible.”
For it is the most unpossible [greatest impossibility] that may be that we should seek mercy and grace and not have it. For every thing that our good lord makes us beseech, he himself has ordained it to us from without beginning.
Julian experiences prayer in an entirely new and radically hope-filled way. She is sure that Christ wants all his “lovers on earth” to know how he directs our prayer, because “the more that we know, the more shall we beseech,” if we understand this teaching wisely, as our Lord intends.
Note: Quotations above and translations from Julian's Middle English are from my book: Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books).
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