Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D
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Picture

Fire and Spirit: Women Christian Mystics
Week 4:  Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe


Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
Anchorite whose visions of “Christ Our Mother” are filled with extraordinary tenderness and exquisite consolation.

Margery Kempe (1373-1438)
            Wife, mother of fourteen children, beer brewer, lay mystic and pilgrim. Surely one of the most memorable characters of the Middle Age.





Recommended Reading:
The Complete Julian, Father John-Julian, OJN (Paraclete Press)
                     A comprehensive volume, including an introduction to Julian’s life and times and a complete annotated modern translation of      
                    Revelations  of Divine Love.

Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life and Revelations of Julian of Norwich, Veronica Mary Rolf (Orbis Books)
                 A very thorough and insightful exploration of Julian's world, with a thoughtful commentary on the Revelations

Julian of Norwich: Showings, Classics of Western Spirituality
                        Another fine volume and translation.

The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller, Brenda Rickman Vantrease
                        Well-researched and imminently readable historical novels about the Lollards, Hussites and fight to translate the Bible into the        
                         vernacular language. Features Julian of Norwich as a character.

The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin Classics)
                        Earthy, unabashedly dramatic, often funny and endearing autobiography of an unforgettable English woman’s call to the spiritual life.

Quotes by Julian of Norwich

“God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.” 


“There are deeds  which are done which appear so evil to us and people suffer such terrible evils that it does not seem as though any good will ever come of them; and we consider this, sorrowing and grieving over it so that we cannot find peace in the blessed contemplation of God as we should do; and this is why: our reasoning powers are so blind now, so humble and so simple, that we cannot know the high, marvelous wisdom, the might and the goodness of the Holy Trinity. And this is what he means where he says, 'You shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well', as if he said, 'Pay attention to this now, faithfully and confidently, and at the end of time you will truly see it in the fullness of joy.”

“Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love.” 

“In this vision he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought, “What may this be?”. And it was generally answered thus: “It is all that is made.”

I marveled at how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And it was answered in my understanding: “it lasts and ever shall, because God loves it.”



Links to useful websites:
Margery Kempe: http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/margery.htm
Audiobook of Revelations of Divine Love,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z0er8lToUQ

Contact Kayleen Asbo: mythicamuse@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Pilgrimages
    • From Grief to Garden: Holy Week with Mary Magdalene
    • Glastonbury and May Day
    • Mystical Scotland >
      • Beginning Your Pilgrimage
      • Celtic Knots and Illuminated Manuscripts
  • Heroines
    • Esclarmonde of Foix
    • Ariadne's Thread
    • The Map of the Heroine's Path
    • The Art of Lamentation: Isis and Nepthys
    • The Tasks of Psyche
  • Classes
    • Anchored in the Heart >
      • Week One: Drinking From the Well of Virtue
      • Week Two
      • Week Three: Music and Divine Office
      • Week Four: Images and Visions
      • Week Five: Julian of Norwich and Lectio Divina
      • Week 6: Time and Seasons
    • Dante Retreat >
      • Welcome letter
      • Session One: Love, Loss and Longing
      • Session Two: Hot Sins
      • Session Three: Where Our Hearts Grow Cold
      • Session Four: Arriving on the Shores of Humility
      • Session Five: Returning to Innocence
    • 22 Days of Magdalene
    • The Mystic Path and Poetry of T.S. Eliot >
      • Week One: Prophet of Despair
      • Week Two: Beethoven, Dante and Eliot
      • Burnt Norton
      • East Coker
      • Dry Salvages
      • Little Gidding
    • Mary Magdalene and the Movies >
      • Mary Magdalene and the Movies Code
  • Poetry
  • Art
  • About
  • Videos
  • Catherine of Siena