Category: Uncategorized
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Chapter 4: Reflection 11 – Applying Antidotes
For sothely whan a man is sharpely tempted he may than haue hope of gr[e]te vertue / and it is necessary for a man moche to be troubled with temptacyons / for euery virtue is proued by its contrarye. 1 In defining the term, “antidote” (Tibetan, gnyen po), Thupten Jinpa writes: Just as a specific…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 10 – Troubles and Temptations
Thus I toke it for that time that our lord Ihesu, of his curteys love, would shewe me comfort before the time of my temptation. For methought it might well be that I should, by the sufferance of God and with his keping, be tempted of fiends before I died. 1 Temptation during the process…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 10 – Troubles and Temptations
Thus I toke it for that time that our lord Ihesu, of his curteys love, would shewe me comfort before the time of my temptation. For methought it might well be that I should, by the sufferance of God and with his keping, be tempted of fiends before I died. 1 Temptation during the process…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 9 – As a Window
And I said: ‘Benedicite dominus!” This I said for reverence in my mening, with a mighty voice. And full greatly was I astonned, for wonder and marvalye that I had, that he that is so reverent and so dreadful will be so homely with a sinful creature liveing in this wretched flesh. 1 In a…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 8 – Wher Jhesu Appireth the Blessed Trinity is Understand
And in the same shewing, sodeinly the trinity fulfilled my hert most with joy. And so I undertode it shall be in heaven without end, to all that shall come ther. For the trinity is God, God is the trinity. The trinity is our maker, the trinity is our keper, the trinity is our everlasting…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 7 – The Bliss of Sacrificial Love
And in the same shewing, sodeinly the trinity fulfilled my hert most with joy. And so I undertode it shall be in heaven without end, to all that shall come ther. For the trinity is God, God is the trinity. The trinity is our maker, the trinity is our keper, the trinity is our everlasting…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 6 – The Trinity Fulfilled My Hert Most with Joy
And in the same shewing, sodeinly the trinity fulfilled my hert most with joy. And so I undertode it shall be in heaven without end, to all that shall come ther. For the trinity is God, God is the trinity. The trinity is our maker, the trinity is our keper, the trinity is our everlasting…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 5 – The Moon Pouring Its Peacefulness
By February of 1941, TM decided to make a retreat during Holy Week and Easter, and the first place that come to mind was “the Trappist abbey” that Dan Walsh had told him about: And as soon as I thought about it, I saw that it was the only choice. That was where I needed…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 4 – A Vocation to Hide in the Torrent
As TM continues his informal dialogue with the Mother of God in his journal entry of July 17, 1956, he introduces the figure of the prophet, Elijah [Elias], before briefly acknowledging having unexpectedly encountered the very One with whom he now converses: Today … it happened in the refectory that the vocation of Elias to…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 3 – For Now We See Through a Glass
In a journal entry dated July 17, 1956, Thomas Merton included a section he named, “Prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” He was remembering an experience that he had some 16 years earlier during a visit to Havana, Cuba. A younger TM writes about this experience in another journal entry, this one written in…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 2 – To You We Cry
After describing how she saw the blood trickle down from under the garland of thorns, Julian states: “I conceived truly and mightly that it was himselfe that shewed it me, without any meane.” The “himself” refers to the one upon whose “blessed head” the garland of thorns was “pressed,” the one who is “both God…
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Chapter 4: Reflection 1 – A Garland of Tears
And in this, sodenly I saw the red bloud trekile downe from under the garlande, hote and freshely, plentuously and lively, right as it was in the time that the garland of thornes was pressed on his blessed head. Right so, both God and man, the same that sufferd for me. 1 As Chapter 3…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 20 – That Blood You Received from Me in Your Incarnation
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was a model of compassion for medieval Christians. The depiction of her standing at the foot of the Cross, seeing the suffering and death of her Son, was certainly central to such devotion. And what happened between Mother and Son on Calvary came to be explained as Jesus suffering his…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 19 – A Kind Compassion
Julian begins the last section of Chapter 3 with the words: “Then cam sodenly to my mind that I should desire the second wound of our lords gifte and of his grace.” 1 These words refer back to the end of Chapter 2, when Julian prays for “thre woundes,” which, in the Short Text, she…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 18 – Compassion Means to ‘To Share Others’ Sufferings
As was indicated in the last reflection, when Henri de Lubac began his study of Buddhism, he was gifted with a copy of the Indian Buddhist text, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, which is attributed to Asanga (c. 320-390), by his friend Abbe Jules Monchanin (1895-1957). 1 In his reflective writings, Pere de Lubac describes the occasion on which…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 17 – Returning to Sources
In 1951, noted Roman Catholic theologian, Henri de Lubac, published a small collection of essays entitled, Aspects du Bouddhisme [Aspects of Buddhism]. 1 Father de Lubac was one of a number of scholars who were part of a movement within twentieth century Roman Catholic theology called “ressourcement,” for which Patricia Kelly offers the following overview: Ressourcement…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 16 – The Sweet Poison of Compassion
In a divinity school podcast episode once, scholar John Behr offered a story to assist the audience connect with the lofty world of “The Fathers of the Church” – and more specifically, Origen of Alexandria’s ultimate place amongst them. He begins by recounting a conversation he had with his wife years earlier. The discussion began…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 15 – They That Were with Me Sent for the Parson
One of the center points of the book known by many in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead [Bardo Thodol] is a section called, “The Great Liberation by Hearing.” It is this section that is read to the dying and the dead. An advisor to the Dalai Lama and Dzogchen teacher, Khamtrul Rinpoche…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 14 – An Image of Comfort
My curate was sent for to be at my ending, and by then he cam I had set up my eyen and might not speake. He set the cross before my face, and said: ‘I have brought thee the image of thy saviour. Looke thereupon and comfort thee therwith.’ 1 In her Short Text, Julian…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 13 – Like Awaiting the Arrival of a Dearly Loved Friend
Writing from Jesus College at Oxford on Easter Day 1927, Walter Evans-Wentz ends the “Preface” to his first edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead with these words of commission: Thus, under the best of auspices, this book is sent forth to the world, in the hope that it may contribute something to the…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 12 – Seeing from the In-Between
After this the over part of my body began to die, so farforth that unneth I had any feeling. My most paine was shortnes of winde and failing of life. Then wened I sothly to have passed. And sodenly all my paine was taken from me and I was as hole, and namely in the…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 11 – Tunnel Vision and the Penetrating Gaze
After this my sight began to faile, and it was all darke aboute me in the chamber as if it had ben night, save in the image of crosse, wherein held a common light, and I wiste not how. All that was beseid the cross was oglye and ferful to me, as if it had…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 10 – Visions for the Path
Tsongkhapa’s visions of Mañjuśrī represent a primary aspect of his mystical life, however, his visions were not limited solely to the Buddha of wisdom. For he also had visions of Atisa, the 11th century Indian scholar and practitioner who is credited with having reestablished Buddhism in Tibet, after a period of the tradition’s decline. Atisa’s…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 9 – Seeing the Teacher
In introducing the mystical elements of Tsongkhapa’s spiritual practice and experience, Thupten Jinpa writes: One of the most intriguing aspects of Tsongkhapa’s life and, for some, perhaps the most controversial was the enduring ‘presence’ of a mysterious teacher whom he referred to as Guru Mañjuśrī … All traditional sources, including the earliest biographical works composed…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 8 – “What Did It Mean to Say ‘I Saw?’”
As we draw close Julian’s descriptions of her visionary experiences, it might be useful to begin to reflect on the mystical experience of a Tibetan Buddhist living in the same period, Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Tsongkhapa in the history of the people of Tibet, the Land of Snows.…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 7 – “Opening the Inner Doors”
After Julian is repositioned as she requested, so that her heart might be more open and available to meditate on God, she is visited by a priest: My curate was sent for to be at my ending, and by then he cam I had set up my eyen and might not speake. He set the…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 6 – To Have the More Freedom of My Heart
Then was I stered to be set upright, underlening with helpe, for to have the more fredom of my hart to be at Gods will, and thinke on God while me life woulde last. 1 In the first sentences of his “The Form of Living,” Richard Rolle writes that, within each woman or man that…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 5 – To Think on God While My Life Would Last
Thus I indured till day, and by then was my body dead from the middes downward, as to my feeling. Then was I stered to be set upright, underlening with helpe, for to have the more fredom of my hart to be at Gods will, and thinke on God while me life woulde last. 1…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 4 – More Knowing and Loving of God in the Blisse of Heaven
And after this I langorid forth two days and two nightes, and on the third night I wened oftentimes to have passed, and so wened they that were with me. And yet in this I felt a great louthsomnes to die, but for nothing that was in earth me liked to live for, ne for…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 3 – Life As a Succession of Points
In his commentary on Julian’s use of the word “point,” scholar Bernard McGinn reflects: “’Point’ is used by Julian to refer to any instant of time, but it has a particular resonance as ‘point of death’ …. Life as a succession of points, or instants, is always (potentially) the instant of death.” 1 Professor’s McGinn’s…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 2 – For We Lyue Bot in a Poynt
As shared previously, the 14th century hermit and mystic, Richard Rolle, writes of the “things” that spiritual practitioners should have in mind until they “be in perfect love.” Regarding the first of these four things, he writes: One is the length of your life here, which is so short that it is hardly anything at all.…
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Chapter 3: Reflection 1 – The Possibility of Death Was Not Absent
And when I was thirty yere old and a halfe, God sent me a bodily sicknes in the which I ley for three days and three nightes, and on the fourth night I toke all my rightes of holy church, and wened not to have liven till day. 1 In his Asian Journal, in an…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 32 – Charity Seeketh Not Her Own
In his last verse, Langri Thangpa writes: “By ensuring that all this remains undefiled / From the stains of the eight mundane concerns, / And by understanding all things as illusions, / I will train myself to be free from the bondage of clinging.” The eight “mundane” or “worldly” concerns are “the four pairings of…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 31 – Taking Upon Myself All the Pains of My Mothers
The seventh verse of Langri Thangpa’s poem reads: “In brief, I will train myself to offer benefit and joy / To all my mothers, both directly and indirectly, / And respectfully take upon myself / All the hurts and pains of my mothers.” 1 This verse highlights the practice of tonglen or “giving and taking.”…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 30 – Answering Injury with Benevolence
In his guidance for meditation for a recluse, Aelred of Rievaulx invites the practitioner reader into this engagement of the Passion of Jesus: Follow him … to the courtyard of the High Priest and bathe with your tears his most beautiful face which they are covering with spittle. See with what loving gaze, how mercifully,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 29 – Responding with a Tranquil and Gentle Heart
Amid all this consider what tranquility was preserved in that most sweet breast, what loving kindness it exhibited. He pays no attention to the wrongs done to him, takes no notice of the pain, disregards the insults, but rather has compassion on those who are making him suffer, heals those who are wounding him, wins…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 28 – As Though Finding a Treasure of Precious Jewels
The Lord gave it to me, Brother Francis, this way to begin doing penance. Because, when I was in sins, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord himself brought me amongst them and I made mercy with them. And when I withdrew from them, what had seemed bitter to me…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 27 – Battling Heart-wounds
“With al keping kepe thin herte, for lijf cometh forth of it.” (Wycliffe Bible, Proverbs 4.23) 1 The third verse of Langri Thangpa’s 8 Verses reads “During all my activities I will probe my mind, / And as soon as an affliction arises – / Since it endangers myself and others – / I will…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 26 – Allowing Others to be of Supreme Importance
“No thing bi strijf, nether by veyn glorie, but in mekenesse, demynge eche othere to be heiyer than hym silf.” (Wycliffe Bible, Philippians 2:4) 1 In the second stanza of his Eight Verses on Mind Training, Langri Thangpa (1054-1093) writes: “Whenever I interact with others, / I will view myself as inferior to all; /…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 25 – Transformed into Nothing but Pure Joy
In his short 1999 book How to Generate Bodhicitta, Tibetan Buddhist monk, Ribur Rinpoche (1923-2005) teaches: What is the measure or sign of having generated great compassion in your mind? It is that you feel towards all sentient beings the same wish for them to be free of suffering that a mother would feel for…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 24 – Generating Compassion Until Tears Flow
While the eyes of many Christians in the medieval West glistened with compassionate devotion, so did those of many spiritual practitioners in the Land of Snows, and with no less tenderness. The great Kadam master, Geshe Langri Thangpa (1054-1124), who is “famed for his great compassion,” was often in tears, because of “his constantly contemplating…
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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.”…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 19 – The Little Way of Heroic Martyrdom
In 1887, the fourteenth year-old Thérèse Martin, who is now known at Saint Thérèse of Lisieux or the Little Flower of Jesus, her Celine and their father, Louis, made a pilgrimage to Rome. 1 During the trip, this small band of French pilgrims visited the holy sites of the Eternal City, and the sites linked…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 18 – Compassionate Solidarity
When reading of Julian’s “wilful” desire for the “gifte of a bodily sicknes,” one is struck by the level of specificity with which she details the type of illness she desires. As mentioned above, she wants the malady to bring her to the point of death, but her additional specificity is striking: “In this sicknes…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 16 – Steeled by Closeness to Death
Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-254) is a figure with whom TM seems to have identified. 1 And such a sense of affinity can be understood, for while there are certainly differences between to these two Christian men, there are tender points of connection. Indeed, the lives of each were marked by early exposure to intense…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 15 – To Die Without Dying
In her request for the “gift” of a “bodily sicknes,” Julian provides a significant amount of detail about the type of malady she requested. 1 She states that she wished that the sickness would bring her to the very point of death, so that both she and those around her would believe that she was…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 14 – The Kind Gift of Sickness
“For the secunde, come to my mind with contrition, frely without any seking: a wilful desire to have of Gods gifte a bodily sicknes.” 1 Thus does Julian name the second of three gifts she desires of God. In a culture that invests so much in preventing illness and its symptoms, it can seem so…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 13 – Tibetan Christmas Cards
In his book, A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic, Dezhung Rinpoche, author David Jackson describes something of the relationship between the Tibetan Buddhist lama and one of his students, Jesuit Richard Sherburne. Father Sherburne studied regularly with Rinpoche while he was a student at the University of Washington (Seattle). Much of…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 12 – Love at a Refined Pitch
In 1984, scholar José Ignacio Cabezón published a review article which focused on Father Richard Sherburne’s English translation of Atisa’s A Lamp for the Enlightenment Path. 1 In this piece, Professor Cabezón affirms the “success” and the “immediate popularity” of Atisa’s 11th century text and its ability both to avoid the “extensive dialectics that were…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 11 – Watched Over Me with the Eyes of Love
Through the teaching of reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhists believe that all sentient beings have been one’s mother, and father, and sister, and brother an incalculable number of times. Using “mother” as the name of a primary relationship embodying the quality of loving kindness, Tibetan Buddhists affirm this vast communion of relationships when they speak of other…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 10 – Opening Wide the Inner Eye of the Soul
Julian’s desire for a deeper “mind of the passion of Christ” clearly involves the ability to “see” his sufferings, and that visual access is intended to be a type of window through which she can experience a more intimate solidarity and communion with Christ, and with the others who loved him. 1 These others, who…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 9 – To Help All Other Sentient Beings
Within the vast corpus of Tibetan Buddhist literature is a genre of writing that stands out for its inspiration power, poignant fervor, and down-to-earth practicality, all of which have made these teachings dear to the Tibetan people for generations. I am referring to a collection of texts and their associated spiritual practices known simply as…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 8 – A Vision Enlightened by Charity
The man was so kind, so tendered-hearted that many would have regarded him as perilously indulgent … There was no one wild enough, wicked enough, violent enough, ungrateful enough to be beyond the range of Aelred’s forgiveness and forbearance and tender mercy. 1 Thus does TM paint the portrait of the 12th century Cistercian abbot,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 7 – See, Gaze Upon, Behold
Another pioneering figure in the long lineage of teachers of what has come to be called by modern scholars, “affective piety,” is the 12th century Cistercian abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx. 1 Under Aelred’s abbatial leadership, Rievaulx abbey in North Yorkshire was said to have tripled in size. But more important than numbers were the character…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 6 – Student and Teacher – Very Close, Warm Relation
It is clear from the testimony of his students that Geshe Lhundop Sopa embodied a Tibetan tradition of spiritual and religious teaching which stretched back to Atisa. 1 Indeed, more than one student overtly likened him to the 11th century Indian scholar. 2 However, in his genuine humility, he would become quite uncomfortable at such…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 5 – That I Might Have Seen
As Chapter Two begins, Julian explains that “this revelation” was made to her, “a simple creature unlettered,” on May 8, 1373. She further shares that she had “before” longed for three gifts, 1) “mind of the passion”; 2) “bodily sicknes”; and 3) three “wounds”: i. “very contrition,” ii. “kind compassion,” and iii. “wilful longing for…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 4 – Two Figures Made Almost as One
It has been said that by the time of his death 1337, the artist Giotto di Bondone “had revived painting from its long sleep” and that his “brush created figures that truly seemed to live and breathe.” 1 One of the greatest testimonies to his visionary abilities is inscribed on the walls of a small chapel…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 3 – Be Like a Swan
“This revelation was shewed to a simple creature unlettered, living in deadly flesh …” 1 The adjective “deadly” carries a number of meanings and resonances in modern English and in Middle English. These certainly include “subject to death” and “mortal,” but also “perishable, fleeting, transitory.” 2 The evanescent quality of embodied human life, and indeed,…
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Chapter 2: Reflection 2 – He was Washing Dishes in the Sink
When TM expressed his desire to study Dzogchen to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader recommended that TM get a solid grounding in the philosophical tradition that the Tibetans inherited from earlier Indian Buddhist scholars. To do this, His Holiness suggested that TM “consult qualified Tibetan scholars, uniting study and practice,” and one of the…
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Chapter 2: Refection 1 – An Evanescent Anonymity
In Eve’s exchange with the Serpent, the Mother of All Living offers a teaching, an exemplum, of the tender and illusive condition that is at the heart of all human suffering – our inability to see things as they really are. 1 Indeed, we see them “as more than they are.” And then, based on…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 20 – To See and Not to See
At the end of her first chapter, after just describing the last of her showings and the Trinity’s dwelling and activity in the soul “for love,” Julian writes these words of hope, trust – and maybe, holy defiance: “And we shall not be overcome by our enemy.” 1 These words, both their message and placement,…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 19 – A Fecundity Which Must Pour Itself Out
What has been said of Bernard of Clairvaux might well be said of Julian of Norwich: “Everything he concerns himself with either leads to love or is explained by love.” 1 The early Cistercian abbot was a very significant presence in TM’s religious, spiritual, and theological development. Two quotations from insightful historians paint an introductory…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 18 – Chewing with the Mind and the Heart
When Harold Talbott, TM’s Dharamsala host, recounted the Cistercian monk’s three audiences and conversations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he reported that “tradition” was one of the topics about which His Holiness inquired: When [The Dalai Lama] was asking Merton about Catholicism, he wanted to know about the monastic tradition. And Merton told him…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 17 – To Give Everything, Everything
The man who served as TM’s host in Dharamsala, Harold Talbott, was interviewed in Louisville, Kentucky in December 2000 to mark the 32nd anniversary of TM’s death. After his 1968 encounter with the Trappist pilgrim, Harold continued his sincere study and generous practice of Tibetan Buddhism. 1 And his gracious practice, his “gentle, humorous, insightful…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 16 – The School of Charity
On the second day in Dharamsala, TM was truly experiencing a sense of connection, as he writes in his journal: “I do feel very much at home with the Tibetans…” 1 In another entry from the same day, TM allows himself to imagine the ways in which such a rich spiritual culture might inform his…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 15 – There is Something About Lepers
Early in his first prayer to St. Mary, Anselm presents himself to the Mother of Mercy as one made unclean by the disease of his sins: “I long to come before you in my misery, sick with the sickness of vice, in pain from the wounds of crimes, putrid with the ulcers of sin.” 1…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 14 – Feeling of Wele and Woe
When asked how innovative it was that Anselm combined more “devotional” material, such as prayers, with more “discursive” material, such philosophical arguments, scholar Eileen Sweeney provides additional insight into what TM describes as the “wonderful unity” of prayer and philosophy in Anselm. The professor explains that the “contrasts in Anselm between those two elements comes…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 13 – A Perfect Synthesis
In the first of a series of five conferences on Anselm of Canterbury which he offered to the novices at Gethsemani Abbey between June and December of 1963, TM, in his very first words, challenges his students to fortify themselves for the task before them: Now I want to get into this deal with St.…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 12 – The Emptying Crown
Julian begins her introduction of the first “shewing” with the words: “[t]he first is of his [Jesus’] precious crowning of thorns. And in this was included and specified the blessed trinity, with the incarnation and the union between God and man’s soul.” 1 In her visions of the crucified Christ, the crowning of thorns becomes…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 11 – A Guide in the Desert
The first English language translation of Atisa’s Lamp for the Path and indeed the Indian scholar’s complete works, was undertaken and completed by a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, who was also present during several of TM’s encounters with Tibetan Buddhist masters in 1968. The Jesuit worked on his translation of Atisa’s writings under the direction…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 10 – The Stars in the Bright Sky
TM’s now famous meetings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama almost did not take place. Indeed, Harold Talbott shares that the Roman Catholic spiritual seeker was not – at least initially – in any way interested in wasting his precious pilgrimage time meeting hierarchs, regardless of their religious persuasion. Harold recalls a conversation he had…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 9 – A Broken and Happy Heart
There is a maxim among those who have long served people in need that when engaging someone who is confused, agitated, and even traumatized, you try to speak softly, but clearly; you simplify as much as possible, without being condescending; you strive, as best you can, to convey your kind regard and respect for them;…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 8 – A Satisfying Word
Anselm’s Prayers and Meditations would have a profound and lasting impact on the spirituality, devotion, and meditation practices of Western European Christianity in the Middle Ages. 1 And we can hear the distinct echoes of that legacy in the language of Julian’s first chapter, with its emphasis on the Passion of Christ. Although an evolution…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 7 – She Told Him to Go … So Off He Went
When Anselm of Canterbury was about 11 years old, on the other side of the world, a very significant figure emerged in the history of Buddhism in Tibet, namely, the Indian Bengali teacher Atisa Dīpamkara (982-1054). And there are intriguing similarities between these two men. Both were skilled and successful scholars and philosophers, both were…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 6 – Omnium Sanctorum & The Birth of the Blues
After spending some time in Bangkok, Calcutta, and New Delhi, it was on the first of November, the great Feast of All Saints – In Festo Omnium Sanctorum – that the TM arrived in Dharamsala, the northern Indian city on the edge of the Himalayas. 1 It was here that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 5 – Nether by Veyn Glorie, But in Mekenesse
In 1988, Vincent Gillespie, J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at Oxford, and Maggie Ross (Martha Reeves), an Anglican Solitary or Anchorite, made a commitment to read and discuss Julian’s A Revelation together. 1 But this was no ordinary collaborative reading endeavor. Although they together brought years of study, reflection, and discipline to this…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 4 – A Passion for the Passion
In the very first words of A Revelation, Julian references the Passion of Christ as she begins to introduce her showings: “[O]f which the first is about his precious crowning of thorns.” 1 The first chapter contains a number of such references, which identify critically important imagery and themes for the rest of the text:…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 3 – The Great Compassion, Mahakaruna
By the time he boarded the Pan American flight that began his journey to Asia, TM had already been engaged in dialogue with the continent’s spiritual traditions for many years. And on that Tuesday, October 15th, the 53-year-old Trappist monk was filled with an almost dreamlike excitement: The moment of take-off was ecstatic. The dewy…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 2 – One of My Best Friends
It appears that Thomas Merton (TM) began reading – or possibly, re-reading – Julian’s writings in 1961. 1 In a journal entry of Easter Sunday (April 2nd) of that year, TM notes briefly that he had been “reading bits of Dame Julian of Norwich” the day before, Holy Saturday. 2 By the end of that…
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Chapter 1: Reflection 1 – A Treasure of Wisdom and Blessings
On page 425 of the fifth volume of his magisterial work, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, after 2000 pages of richly researched, insightfully interpreted, and warmly delivered teachings on the Saints and the Greats of the preceding tradition, Bernard McGinn begins his essay on Julian of Norwich with these words:…
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May 8, 2022 – Beginnings
At the end of A Revelation of Love, the anchorite Julian of Norwich (c.1343-c.1416) writes, “This book is begun by God’s gift and his grace, but it is not yet performed, as I see it.” 1 This seemingly simply statement is an authentic act of genuine humility. It is not a rhetorical flourish made to feign modesty, as…
Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas 