Julian of Norwich on Prayer 1 – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Peace, one and all…
After exploring sin, Julian of Norwich turns to focus on its cure, namely, prayer. If the events of our lives have meaning, and are brought about for our growth, then sincere prayer is the means by which we actually turn to God.
Although Julian wrote in the 14th century, as a believing, pre-Reformation English Christian, there is much in her words to benefit any seeker of God. Although there are clear doctrinal differences between Christianity and Islam, there is also common ground, especially in the search for a life focused on God, and on making prayer real within the heart.
May the hearts of the lovers be opened.
The fourteenth revelation: we cannot pray for mercy and not have it; God wills us to pray always, even in aridity; such prayer pleases him.
After this our Lord showed me about prayer. The result of this revelation is that I now see that there are two conditions about prayer. One concerns its rightness, the other our sure trust.
Often enough our trust is not wholehearted, for we are not sure that God hears us. We think it is due to our unworthiness and because we feel absolutely nothing: we are often as barren and dry after our prayers as we were before. This awareness of our foolishness is the cause of our weakness. At least, this has been my own experience.
All this our Lord brought immediately to mind, and in this revelation said, ‘I am the foundation of your praying. In the first place my will is that you should pray, and then I make it your will too, and since it is I who make you pray, you do so pray, how can you not have what you ask for?’
Thus in this first reason, and the three that follow, our good Lord showed me great comfort, as can be gathered from his words. In the first reason, when he says ‘and you do so pray’, he reveals his great pleasure, and the eternal reward that he gives to us who pray. In the second reason, where he says ‘how can you not have?’, he is talking of something which is not possible; for it is quite impossible that we should pray for mercy and grace and not receive it! Everything our Lord makes us ask for he has ordained for us from before time. So now we can see that it is not our praying that is the cause of God’s goodness to us. He showed this to be true in that lovely word, ‘I am the foundation’. It is our Lord’s will that this truth be known by all his earthly lovers. The more we know it to be true, the more we shall pray, if we are sensible. This is our Lord’s meaning.
Prayer is the deliberate act of the soul. It is true, full of grace, and lasting, for it is united with and fixed into the will of our Lord by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord is the first to receive the prayer – as I see it – and he accepts it gratefully and joyfully. Then he sends it up above, and puts it in the treasury where it will never perish. There it remains continually, before God and his holy ones, ever helping our needs. And when we come to our bliss it shall be given back to us, a contribution to our joy, with his eternal, glorious gratitude.
Our Lord is greatly cheered by our prayer. He looks for it, and he wants it. By his grace he aims to make us as like himself in heart as we already are in our human nature. This is his blessed will. So, he says, ‘Pray inwardly, even if you do not enjoy it. It does good, though you feel nothing, see nothing. Yes, even though you think you are doing nothing. For when you are dry, empty, sick or weak, at such a time is your prayer most pleasing to me though you find little enough to enjoy in it. This is true of all believing prayer’.
Because of the reward and everlasting gratitude he wants us to have, he is eager to see us pray always. God accepts his servant’s intention and effort, whatever our feelings. It pleases him that we should work away at our praying and at our Christian living by the help of his grace, and that we consciously direct all our powers to him, until such time as, in all fullness of joy, we have him whom we seek, Jesus…
With prayer goes gratitude. Thanksgiving is a real, interior knowledge. With great reverence and loving fear, it turns us with all our powers to do whatever our good Lord indicates. It brings joy and gratitude within. Sometimes its very abundance gives voice, ‘Good Lord, thank you and bless you!’… Thanksgiving is a blessed thing in his sight.
Revelations of Divine Love, 41
