From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The progressive work of the Spirit   
      
   Augustine explains the progressive work of the Spirit in guiding the   
   disciples of Jesus in all the truth:   
      
       "Accordingly, when he says, 'He will teach you all truth' or 'will   
   guide you into all truth,' I do not think the fulfillment is possible   
   in anyone's mind in this present life. For who is there, while living   
   in this corruptible and soul-oppressing body (Wisdom 9:15), that can   
   know all truth when even the apostle says, 'We know in part'? But it   
   is effected by the Holy Spirit, of whom we have now received the   
   promise (2 Corinthians 1:21), that we shall attain also to the actual   
   fullness of knowledge that the same apostle references when he says,   
   'But then face to face' and 'Now I know in part, but then shall I know   
   even as also I am known' (1 Corinthians 13:12). He is not talking   
   about something he knows fully in this life but about something that   
   would still be in the future when he would attain that perfection.   
   This is what the Lord promised us through the love of the Spirit, when   
   he said, 'He will teach you all truth' or 'will guide you unto all   
   truth.'"   
   --St. Augustine--(TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 96.4)   
      
      
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   May 13th - Blessed Julian of Norwich, Mystic, Hermit   
   (Also known as Juliana of Norwich, Dame Julian, Mother Julian)   
      
   (1342-1423?)   
      
   Among the English mystics none is greater than the Lady Julian, who   
   lived near Norwich, England, in a three-roomed hermitage in the   
   churchyard of Conisford. Absolutely nothing is known of her life   
   before becoming an anchorite. In fact, we do not even know her name;   
   she has been given the name of the church where she had her cell. An   
   old English historian writes: "In 1393, Lady Julian, the anchoress   
   here was a strict recluse, and had two servants to attend her in her   
   old age. This woman was in these days esteemed one of the greatest   
   holiness."   
      
   She lived in an age of startling and confusing contrasts. It was the   
   time of the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt, Piers Plowman and Wat   
   Tyler, when the old social patterns were breaking down. But none of   
   this is reflected in her quiet and retired life or in the pages of her   
   spiritual autobiography, “Revelations of Divine Love”, which is the   
   most sublime of all expositions of its kind in English. Her   
   masterpiece encompasses the love of God, the Incarnation, redemption,   
   sin, penance, and divine consolation.   
      
   "These revelations," she writes, "were shown to a simple creature   
   unlettered, the year of our Lord 1373, the eighth day of May." She   
   desired above all to know the suffering of our Lord—what she called   
   "the mind of His Passion"—and that nothing might stand between herself   
   and God. She tells us that when at the age of 30 she was at the point   
   of death and the curate was sent for to administer the last rites, "he   
   set the Cross before my face and said: 'I have brought you the Image   
   of thy Maker and Savior: Look thereupon and comfort yourself with   
   it.'"   
      
   She spent the next 20 years meditating upon the 16 revelations that   
   followed in a state of ecstasy, of Christ's Passion and the Trinity.   
   She saw the red blood flow from under the Crown of Thorns; she saw the   
   Virgin, a young and simple maid; she saw our Lord a 'homely loving.'   
   Then God showed her a little thing—a hazel nut in the palm of her   
   hand. She thought: what may this be? and was answered: "It is all that   
   is made. God shaped it. God gave it life. God maintains it."   
      
   Thus, she learned the goodness of God, in which is our highest prayer   
   and which "comes down to our lowest need." And still regarding the   
   Crucifix, she saw the stream of God's mercy falling like showers of   
   rain, and looked upon the tokens of His Passion. She saw our Lord   
   dying and underwent the torments and agony of His suffering. "And thus   
   I saw Him, and sought Him; I had Him and I wanted Him." It seemed, she   
   said, as if He were 7 nights dying, so outdrawn was His anguish,   
   suffering the last pain, seven nights dead, continually dying, in a   
   cold dry wind. "Thus was I taught to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom   
   I saw only in pain at that time . . . to choose only Jesus in good   
   times and bad. . . . He shall make all well that is not well. . . .   
   Prayer unites the soul to God."   
      
   In this way, this remarkable book pursues its course, full of deep   
   insight and feeling: "In Christ our two natures are united." "Our soul   
   can never have rest in things that are beneath itself." "God can do   
   all that we need." "I knew well that while I beheld in the Cross I was   
   surely safe." And its last word is: "Love was our Lord's meaning." At   
   the time of her death she had a far-spread reputation for sanctity,   
   which attracted visitors from all over England to her cell   
   (Benedictines, Delaney, Gill).   
      
      
   Quote:   
   And what might this noble Lord do of more worship and joy to me than   
   to show me (that am so simple) this marvelous homeliness [i.e.,   
   naturalness and simplicity]? Thus it fareth with our Lord Jesus and   
   with us. For truly it is the most joy that may be that He that is   
   highest and mightiest, noblest and worthiest, is lowest and meekest,   
   homeliest and most courteous: and truly this marvelous joy shall be   
   shewn us all when we see Him.   
   --Juliana of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love   
      
   Bible Quote   
   That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it   
   is not granted to man to utter.  For such an one I will glory; but for   
   myself I will glory nothing, but in my infirmities.   (2 Corinthians   
   4-5)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   “Consider this great mystery!   
   The Son of God has passed whole and entire,   
   from the heart of the Father   
   to the womb of Mary   
   and from the womb of the Mother   
   to the lap of the Church.”   
   --St Peter Damian (1007-72) Doctor of the Church   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)