Month: February 2023
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Chapter 2: Reflection 23 – Wound Me with the Wound of Compassion
The American Christian pastor and evangelical preacher, A, W. Tozer (1897-1963), had a great affinity for Julian of Norwich and for other Christian mystics. Indeed, his biographer affirms that “the writings of these Christian mystics were woven like threads of silver and gold into the fabric of Tozer’s discourses. He cited them, paraphrased them, imitated…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 22 – I Press My Palms Together
In medieval English spirituality, “contrition” was of a piece with both sacramental confession, which was frequently referred to as “shrift,” and penance. In “The Parson’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer writes of this three-step process: “Now shalt thou understand what is suitable and necessary to true, perfect Penitence. And this consists of three things: Contrition of Heart,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 21 – Stirring, Soothing, and Piercing the Heart
It is from Origen of Alexandria and other ancient exegetes that Bernard of Clairvaux drew and developed the image of “the wound,” particularly in his commentarial Sermons on the Song of Songs. 1 In his seventy-fourth sermon of that collection, the Cistercian Abbot demonstrates having received the breathing inheritance bequeathed to him and skillfully extends…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 20 – Wounds of Love
In the last sentences of Chapter 2, Julian writes: “For the third [gift], by the grace of God and teching of holy church, I conceived a mighty desire to receive thre woundes in my life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wilful longing to God.”…
Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas 