In the same vein, Julian desired the gift of contrition or the gift or bodily sickness. It is only then that “a truer perception of Christ’s Passion” could be realized (Julian of Norwich 3-4). For then, if her soul would leave her body, she would be saved and completely trustful of the Lord. She longed to feel the true pain that Christ’s friends had felt. On Christ’s passion, she intimates that even though she possessed true faith, she longed she longed to be shown in flesh and suffer bodily just like the Savior has suffered. The three graces “the first was vivid perception of Christ’s Passion, the second was bodily sickness and the third was for God to give me three wounds” (Julian of Norwich 3-4).
She wished she’d been there at the Passion of the Lord, that she may receive God’s grace. At the heart of this showing is the desire to suffer with Jesus just like Mary Magdalene has suffered with him. Julian begins her showings with the longing of being under divine influence the desire to be enveloped by God’s grace that she may feel the “the three graces of God’s gift” more intensely. This paper will rely on the itinerary of showings as a guide for understanding the meaning, how they build the path from desire to fulfillment, and argue that this orientation makes the writings a yardstick for leading a contemplative life. While the showings are revealed the author draws salient meanings and uses these directions to map the all encompassing theme of God’s compassionate love for all as manifested through the passions of Jesus Christ. The Revelations of Devine Love shown to a ‘simple, uneducated creature’ in the year of our Lord 1373, on the eighth day of May, charts a clear path from desire to fulfillment.
This process unfolds over time and pictures people in a constant strive and steady movement to seek the infinite truth and be in union with love.
Desire helps us to investigate a self transcending process towards fulfillment. Other times, it is what Julian of Norwich called “the wound of an earnest longing for God” (Julian of Norwich 4). Sometimes, this desire is considered as an intellectual search for truth, or our heart’s longing for embrace and beauty. This orientation manifests as desire, passion, or a strong yearning for the fulfillment of an interior life the spiritual being.
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