The Universe is Nuts

So this is pretty late. Sorry! Break threw me off and I only just thought to check, I apologize to anyone who was looking to get their comments in early this weekend.

I found the readings on Julian of Norwich to be uplifting. As a person who's not at all religious, I still couldn't help but admire her devotion and the clarity of her beliefs. I can't imagine what would drive someone to live as an anchorite other than absolute, pure devotion to their religion. I mean I rarely ever come out of my room, but at least I have internet access. I do have to question whether the effects of borderline-solitary confinement on Julian's sanity may have been a factor in her experience of religious visions, but the contents of those visions and the way she presents them make it hard to argue that they don't have value.

Of all the visions we read about, my personal favorite is definitely the hazelnut metaphor. I really like the idea of representing the universe as something very small and precious. Having some knowledge of medieval cosmology, I think this is actually even more impactful to a modern reader, as our understanding of the scale of the universe is so different. The religious implication that it all exists by the love of God is secondary to me, but I still find it a heartwarming thought, and I appreciate the eloquent simplicity with which she presents it. Despite (or perhaps because of?) the fact that Julian's entire world was a small cell and she had no understanding of just how far away the stars were, she managed to present a philosophical perspective on existence that I somehow still find extremely relatable.

I also found Julian's use of Old English really interesting. It gives her a sort of common appeal that might be lost on modern readers unaware of the Norman Conquest (which is sad, but this is what public education does to people). While she was writing 300 years later, I'm going to assume that she was using this terminology in spite of the relatively recent influx of French and Latin words and phrases into the English language. I doubt it was political but it speaks to common English people possibly more than it would to the Norman-descended nobles. It was also fun running into new (or I should say old) words and trying to figure out what they meant. I'm a bit proud of myself for recognizing the word "sely" as being a cognate of "seelie," and Wiktionary even seems to back me up on it. Yay?

He's got the whole world, in his hands!

That's right, God holds the entire world in his hands! All we are to God is a tiny little nut. At least that is what Julian said she saw. This reading was hard to decipher for me because with her deep love and devotion to Christ, I felt I was no where near her level of biblical word use.

I have never really read the bible, my dad would be ashamed.

For this woman to come to such a deep devotion to God, she was almost dead and God came to her and saved her. If God came to me and healed me of all my earthly dilemmas, I would probably spend the rest of my life praising, worshiping, and studying for Christ.

The "let's lock myself away in a tiny box with a tiny window" thing might not have happened though. I feel as if, no matter how little there was in that room, I would still find a distraction to keep me from my goal and purpose of being in that holy cell. I know that sounds bad, but I can not just focus on one thing for more than, maybe, two hours. She did it for years! Just writing in depth about her connection with Christ and his hazelnut.

I suppose my attention span, and what I would be thinking about would  be completely different if I were in medieval times. So this modern day thinking might be making it harder to imagine being in solitude and devoting myself to something spiritual, than it has to be.

CABIN FEVER DRIVES YA CRAZY!

Hey guys, I welcome you all to the world of my mind and its nonsense. I apologize if things get graphic. If you cannot handle it, please run do not walk to your nearest exit. Anyways, I was sitting around reading the selections about Julian Norwich and something struck me as absolutely insane. This women being an anchoress would pretty much sit and rot in an itty-bitty living space not much bigger than a giants’ breadbox. Basically, after I heard about this woman and her wee living arrangements, I had no choice but to check up on how exactly these folks lived. I had to look through Google images and see for myself how unfortunate a living space these really were.

If you refer to the picture to the left, these holes in the wall were literally holes in the wall. These rooms are NOT for the faint of heart or the weak minded. But if you find your only necessities are sleep, eat, defecate, and rinse and repeat, then congratulations you are ready for your life as an anchoress ----- or a teenager. See if you have ever looked up pictures of where hermits live, they have it a lot better. They get to live in a cabin in the woods all alone amongst the animals, the plants, and nature overall. Actually, that sounds like my definition of a good way of living. Easy, Relaxing, and Comforting. But then again, my definition of a good time is sleeping on the dirt in and amongst scary and sometimes unwelcoming critters.

Honestly, the one main concern id have in situations of living alone or with god? What the hell can one possibly do to keep themselves busy for years at a time without any connection to the outside world or other people (at least for the most part). I would literally lose my mind and would end up talking to the dust bunnies, bugs, or even a sports ball id call Wilson. Cabin fever would be my worst enemy in solitude. I’m sure there are people who can last exorbitantly long spans of time talking to themselves and meditating, but if the reality TV Show, Anchoress Factor, ever came on id be out by the first round. Another issue id think about in such a situation is exercise. I mean how much physical activity can you get in a box that is smaller than that woman’s shoe house in that fairytale. I mean I guess you would not live very long without exercise so it would in retrospect make your time in that box significantly shorter, but what do I know. Anyways, hope you’ve enjoyed my nonsense for this evening, seeya later on.

                                                         (Had to do it)

Portraits of Christ in Catholic Church

The reading titled Christ’s Humanity made me think of the statues of Christ in Catholic churches and the stations of the cross on the walls.  The image we mostly see portraying God is in his son Jesus.  I feel these pictures are there to help people feel more connected to Christ by showing these pictures of him in human form on Earth.  The most common portraits that I have seen of Jesus are: Jesus on the cross, Jesus with Mary, and Jesus suffering.  Jesus portrayed in this way gives the people and closer connection because in some way or another we have all suffered, felt pain or grief.  Jesus also symbolizes the love that God has for the people.  By sending his only son down to Earth to teach and connect with humans.  Which is followed by him dying at the hands of humans and right before he died Jesus asks God to forgive them.

These images survived and are still used today because they are the most relatable.  They make a concept that can be hard to understand (Heaven and God) realistic and something that people can understand (Jesus and his suffering).  There are some portraits of Jesus with a halo, on a gold background to show that he is the son of God ad to give something for people to look up to and a way to live their lives; but those I them find less common.  The reason why I don’t think many of these styles survived is because it may overwhelm people (“How can I ever lead a life like that?”).  This is a misconception though, the main point of these pictures of Christ is to show: God knows what it means to suffer, God is willing to forgive humans, and that humans are able to connect with God.

These images were important in Julian of Norwich time because they had several things going on during that time period.  There was the Hundred Years War with France and Scotland attacking England and then the plague that swept across Europe.  People were suffering and it was important that the art and readings in the church reminded that God knows their suffering and has been through it Himself.  It was also important to know that God has not abandon them.  This is why the common portrait was of Jesus suffering.  The art and readings were also meant to deepen the spiritual connection between man and Christ in this dark time of war and people dying every day from the plague. 

Insert title here

Before I say anything I'd like to make something clear: I have very little experience with religion and religious things. When I was young, my parents and grandparents would bring me to church only on Christmas Eve. I never went every Sunday, I never read a religious text, I was never told to pray every night, or anything like that. I have a hard time thinking of anyone in my extended family who is religious enough for me to be able to tell just from their actions. So basically, when it comes to religion I am really uneducated. I'm even ashamed to admit that growing up, churches and religious things scared me and made me uncomfortable because I couldn't understand why people felt so strongly about these things. Even as a teenager, people simply talking about religion made me feel out of place. I never lashed out at anybody or said anything about it, I only kept it to myself, but I still felt bad that I couldn't fathom why they were so passionate. I guess I'm writing about this now because I don't want to accidentally offend anyone with my ignorance. And now that I'm older and (by my own opinion) more mature, I think I can approach the subject without feeling uneasy. Enough about boring old me though; onto the readings.

Julian of Norwich, just like Hildegard previously, shocked me in how powerful her faith was. As I read about what an anchorite is I tried to picture myself doing something like that. Surely, I told myself, I could shut myself away from the world, because I've done that before for a couple of months at a time. But to this extent? Probably not. I had video games and TV and books to keep myself occupied during those times and if I had been left to my thoughts and my lack of faith the experience would have been unbearable. If I had all of my means of entertainment taken away and was told, "Spend your time praying and listening to the services" I would be completely lost. I came to the conclusion that these people had to be either really strong or really devoted to what they believed in. I suspect it was a combination of both. Voluntarily becoming dead to the world and spending your life in a cell is something most people could not do, regardless of how much of a connection they felt with God.

The events that were occurring during Julian's life were some of the most horrific to have ever occurred in history. I would not be surprised to read that in times of hardship a lot of people throw their faith aside, saying that God should never have given them such torment. I WAS surprised to read about all of this horrible stuff followed simply by a statement that Julian "remained resilient." I think this shows a strong conviction that goes beyond religion and can just be considered awesome. She was, all else aside, a strong, determined, and absolutely dedicated woman. It is probably hard to find many more people in history that could have done this. Well, most of you could probably name a bunch of people that did stuff like this, but I have no idea myself. So from what I've read so far, I can't help but to be impressed by this woman (and Hildegard of course).

My reactions stayed pretty much the same throughout: I was simply impressed. I'm not very passionate about anything in particular, so to read about someone who was filled with so much passion, I was intrigued and I found myself wishing I could be more like that. I hope my ignorance didn't shine through too much. That's why I tried to keep this post on the shorter side, because I feel like I've already shared my feelings on the readings and I don't want to try over-analyzing them only to look silly. Stuff like this I need to read more than once for it to set in, so I'll probably be rereading these PDFs a few times this week. Though I don't expect myself to come up with anything profound or more interesting than anything that might be already posted on the blog, since my experience with this subject is so insignificant.

Don't Forget Your Sweater (Motherly Love at the Highest Level)

Understanding some of this week's material was...difficult. Julian was great at establishing her ideas, but after a while her message, at least to me, became muddled in repetition of God's love and how God's love is great in this way and that way. It made me wonder if being an anchoress for so many years finally got to her.

The face of true sanity and serenity.
(Source: www.juliancentre.org)

Joking aside, I wonder how Julian's book was received at the time of writing - I couldn't find any era-specific response to it, which was surprising considering a woman (gasp!) had a controversial view of the Church. The God and Jesus as mother of humanity idea is very interesting and makes a lot of sense, even in the context of the Bible and popular Church belief, but was surely put down by male clergy. Or maybe not? It is known that Julian was highly respected in her community, so perhaps her anchoress status gave her extra sway to at least express her ideas.

I do wish, though, that later religiously-prominent figures (looking at you, Luther and Bodin!) had taken a leaf out of her book regarding God's love. Julian focused on love and understanding and left out most of the "punishment of the wicked" rhetoric that pervades many other religious writings, which along with Hildegard's writing and music was a nice change of pace for this class. I'm still confused as to the criteria the Church used to determine who was a witch, when so many parallels can be found between magic users and visionaries. The only major difference I can see is the inherent "badness" of the visions seen by those accused of witchcraft. But, Hildegard and Julian lived quite a while before the height of the witch craze, so maybe that will become clearer as we move on.

God is everything and the world is a hazel nut

This week's reading was a bit difficult. I do appreciate the summary pdf.
So there was a lot going on during the time of Julian of Norwich. You have the war, the plague crop failure etc. I feel that a lot of this made way for the hope that Juliana was offering. I'm not 100 percent convinced of these visions or believe them to be true. It's something I have to see kind of thing. Maybe the skepticism is what is preventing me from having spiritual bliss. As Juliana mentions it is our folly that is the cause of our weakness. I kind of like the image of God showing our world is just the size of a walnut. Small and feeble but a creation of God none the less. She couldn't have been making this up. The concept of worlds, or galaxies was way beyond this time.

*your thoughts on the photo?* (God all things, seen as fatherly, and motherly. Showing Juliana the world" ...
Whether or not I believe this, her visions or description of her messages from God are pretty convincing to say the least. Here, she spreads out a strong gospel so to speak. God is everything, the maker, the lover, and keeper. God is wise and the ground the our souls stand on. Juliana believers that she received these visions to teach humanity to help our souls by cleaving to God and all his goodness. She goes further to explain that even with all the suffering one will find peace and enjoy God. I'm sure this definitely turned more people to God especially with what was going on.

Now what I really want to point out is how she calls God "mother" and in extension Jesus "mother". The beginning of feminism, probably not. She delicately explains how God, in extension Jesus, is the almighty father and the all kind and wise mother. She talks about God is "the mother of all life." God shows the properties of a mother such as "kind love, wisdom, and knowing." I would be scared back then to make such a claim as to feminism God during a time of male egocentric dominance. But you can see how she carefully tied it all together explaining that God is everything and creator of all things. So of course God would have such qualities like wisdom and kindness that is a resemblance of motherly love. Juliana was held a great valued female figure. Her words really do seem to speak of holiness and purity. She seems genuine. I could see myself believing her words, although the idea of visions still gives me pause.