Lady at the Window: The Lost Journal of Julian of Norwich
A Novella
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Lady at the Window chronicles the last Holy Week in Julian of Norwich’s life.
In her secret journal (because women are forbidden to write in English) the great English mystic chronicles her inner life, including her relationship with the “courteous Lord,” who when she was young was a constant presence in her life, but now in her old age feels to be more of a constant absence, Deus Absconditus.
There are two windows in Lady Julian’s anchorage: one looks upon the interior of St. Julian’s Church with its high altar and tabernacle; the other opens onto the city of Norwich with its publicans, sinners, poor, people in the marketplace, and neighbors. Among these there are those in deep distress who find their way to Lady Julian, now famous for her wisdom and holy counsel. There is the young woman with a child outside of marriage. There is a wounded young soldier, jobless, homeless, and afraid. There is a man who has betrayed his betrothed. And others. No one leaves Julian’s window without psychological and spiritual uplifting.
But the underlying theme of this novella is Lady Julian’s dark night of the soul. As with other mystics who came after her, e.g., St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Calcutta, Julian abides in a cloud of unknowing, praying daily that her darkness be dispelled by divine light.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Waldron (Thomas Merton in Search of His Soul) imagines the lost journal of 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich in this stirring novella. Julian lived sequestered in her later years as a hermit in the English city of Norwich, and her primary interactions were with her confessor, her servant, and the people who came to her for spiritual direction and wisdom. Julian doles out hopeful advice and questions the traditional Catholic practice of priestly confessions. Composed in secret as women were forbidden from writing in English at the time her journal entries display an unabashed defiance of norms, and, in scriptural readings, Julian likens Jesus as a mother rather than a son or father. Covering the last Holy Week before Julian's death, the final entries look back on a life lived amid plagues, war, and despair. Despite the darkness of days, Julian surmises that, with peace and trust in God, "all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." Christian readers will enjoy Waldron's convincing, reflective tale.