What I’ve Been Doing

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I feel slightly bad for not posting more here.  Only slightly, because I’ve been posting faith-related articles elsewhere, at examiner.com.  The articles are related to apologetics or persecution news.  If any of the apologetics titles are of interest to you, … Continue reading →

Health Insurance

I heard on the radio last month that they are all going up, and since I just looked at some quotes – and had done so 6 months or so ago – I can that indeed they have really gone up. I’m just about in tears. How can anyone possible afford health care anymore? For me, from Kaiser in CA, one of the cheapest policies would be $167 per month, but that covers hardly anything. I mean, the doctor’s visits are still $40 and the deductible is $4000. With that plan, you have to pay for the whole deductible before the insurance pays for anything else. I mean, with already paying $167 per month, how could a lower income person pay anymore??? What are people supposed to do?

Related Articles

• Sick Californians may be forgoing care because health deductible is too high, study says (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

Truly Surprising and Awesome News

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The Slatest published a short article that is based on Ahram Online’s story.  These are the stories: Egyptian Muslims Attend Christmas Eve Services as “Human Shields”, and Egypt’s Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as “human shields”.  Praise the Lord for these brave people with warm hearts!

Victoria’s Turkey Curry Chutney Salad

Image by roboppy via Flickr

All ingredients can be modified – I don’t always make it the same myself! This basically gives you the ingredients, but you can change the amounts. I did not make up this recipe originally, but no longer know the source of it.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups chopped turkey, preferably dark meat
¼ cup chopped celery
¼ cup raisins or craisins OR ½ fresh grapes cut in half
¼ to ½ (to personal taste) walnuts or almonds, slightly chopped

Dressing ingredients:
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup miracle whip
1 Tbsp curry powder
¼ chutney

Mix dressing ingredients, then toss with dry ingredients to cover. Enjoy on any bread of your liking!

Mixed (dry) Fruit Chutney

This recipe was from a book that I no longer have the title of, but it was something like “Cooking with Stored Foods.”  I have modified it slightly, and I often double it.  Dried apricots, being somewhat moist, work really well in this recipe.  Leathery strips of mango do not!

• 12 oz. of dried fruit (like apricots and some pineapple)
• ½ cup raisins (the large white raisins are very good for this)
• ½ cup water
• 1 cup vinegar (white or other fancier, like apple)
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 3 whole cloves (or more, depending on size and your taste)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp ground ginger/powder
• ½ ground coriander

Prepare small to medium canning jars, whichever size you prefer.  Dice the dried fruit.  Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan (large, if you are doubling).  Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.  While hot, ladle into canning jars and secure lids.  As the chutney cools it will create a vacuum and create a seal.  Enjoy on hamburgers or in your favorite recipe!

 

Mixed (dry) Fruit Chutney

 

This recipe was from a book that I no longer have the title of, but it was something like “Cooking with Stored Foods.”  I have modified it slightly, and I often double it.  Dried apricots, being somewhat moist, work really well in this recipe.  Leathery strips of mango do not!

 

12 oz. of dried fruit (like apricots and some pineapple)

½ cup raisins (the large white raisins are very good for this)

½ cup water

1 cup vinegar (white or other fancier, like apple)

1 ½ cups sugar

3 whole cloves (or more, depending on size and your taste)

1 cinnamon stick

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp ground ginger/powder

½ ground coriander

 

Prepare small to medium canning jars, whichever size you prefer.  Dice the dried fruit.  Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan (large, if you are doubling).  Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.  While hot, ladle into canning jars and secure lids.  As the chutney cools it will create a vacuum and create a seal.  Enjoy on hamburgers or in your favorite recipe!

Pew study shows Christians weak in religious knowledge

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“’Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened’ [Isaiah 8:12].  But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:14b-15).

Peter tells believers to have a ready answer for their hope (or faith) in Christ.  Based on the most recent “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey” produced by the Pew Research Center, however, it is questionable whether half of U.S. Christians could provide even a basic defense of their faith.

The survey polled Christian groups (Protestant subgroups, Catholic subgroups, and Mormons), Jews, and unaffiliated groups (atheist/agnostic and “nothing in particular”) about religious knowledge, but included some non-religious questions for comparison purposes.  As an overall group, traditional Christians fared poorly compared to the other groups.  When the top scorers are looked at by groups, Jews came first, then atheists/agnostics, and then Mormons.  Overall scores reveal that atheists/agnostics got more answers correct than any other group or subgroup.

While the study asked participants questions that covered world religions, it is the responses by Christians to the “Bible” and “elements of Christianity” questions that are most disturbing from an apologetics perspective.  The open-ended question, “What is the first book of the bible?,” was answered correctly by Christians as a whole only 66% of the time, scoring lower than the 71% of the atheist/agnostics group; Protestants as a whole scored 76%, however.  The answer, by the way, is Genesis.

When asked to name the four gospels of the New Testament, professed Christians could answer correctly only 50% of the time.  White evangelical Christians got “Matthew, Mark, Luke, John” correct 71% of the time, white mainline Protestants 43% of the time, and white Catholics 40% of the time.  Many Christians do not compare very well to non-believers, then, who knew all of the gospel names 39% of the time.  To view the executive summary of this study and its related links, go to U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey .

God and measurability

 

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I had seen the silliest reason for not believing in God today. I’ve read some things like this before, but this person’s post was intelligently written, so it makes the whole thing even more disturbing. He said that God can’t exist because He is not “natural.”  We live in a “natural” universe and God has not been seen, so He is not natural, so therefore He is just imaginary. Ok. Lol. A few hundred years ago, if he would’ve spoken to someone about his knowledge of radio waves, radiation, digital images, etc., they would’ve thought the same thing of him and his “ideas.” Leaving other issues aside, that person’s argument is illogical since it doesn’t allow for future discoveries; he is giving a “fact” when such a fact claim is not proven.

Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith (Peter Hitchins)

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Timothy Keller)

There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind  (Antony Flew)

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

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“When the Son of Man Comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  (Luke 18:8) [This is a quick blog entry, and I may edit it and expand upon it later.]

This verse has been on my mind lately, and so much so today.  I had read the news online today, and I had never seen so many articles related to sexual perversion and familial murder – and some had to do with “Christianity.”   With so many persons claiming to be Christians, doing perverse things, is it no wonder why so many lose their faith or are totally turned off to Christianity?  The history of the church is bad enough, but, the badness has not stopped.

The verse I provided actually comes as the conclusion to the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8).  Jesus tells us that if we cry out for justice, God will provide it, and swiftly.  But this often does not seem to happen.  Is it because we have little faith (wouldn’t our faithful actions lead to justice)?  Jesus talks much of how little faith his disciples had, and is speaking to us as well.  It is then good to study those parts of the NT where he praises the faith of someone.

Does our apathy show a lack of faith?  Do our actions show that we care more about our status and our institutions?  I’m thinking here of the Catholic Church sex abuse cover ups that went on for so long.  The missions abuse case I posted about was the same (http://www.worldmag.com/articles/17134).  People that do these evil things will be around until Jesus returns, but why aren’t we doing more about it?  Why do we keep trying to ignore these things?  It not only hurts the victims, of course, but it hurts Christ’s kingdom immensely.  If so few actually care about Christ’s kingdom, and are more worried about their own, doesn’t that show a real lack of faith?

Remember when Paul rebuked that girl in Philippi?  Acts 16:16-18:  “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.  She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.  This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’  She kept this up for many days.  Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’  At that moment the spirit left her.”

Apparently, she was a bad witness because of her reputation (and we are not given all the details).  There is much going on like this today, but the witness of it is much worse.  The woman executed in our own country yesterday constantly invoked God and sang hymns.  Yet, her whole life history was filled with manipulation, crime, and evil deeds.  Some say, by way of excuse, that she was border-line mentally disabled.  That sounds a bit fishy to me as she seemed to know what she was doing, at least for the most part, in her life.  How can one explain the huge dichotomy of her life?  Many would probably say at this point in time that Christianity breeds evil and she’s just a victim of it.  What a great witness!  Why would anyone want to become a Christian when they see her example (right before she had her husband murdered, and his son, she prayed with him)?  There are many who claim to be Christian today, who just do all kinds of nasty stuff.  This is getting to be a commonplace witness.

What would Paul or John do about these situations?  Can you imagine John conducting business, regarding all the sexual scandals in the Catholic Church, like those church leaders have done?  I think it is laughable in the extreme, if it weren’t so horrific.  I know I’m going on, and venting; but will Christ find faith when He returns?

9 (the movie)

DVD cover image, via amazon

I watched “9″ the other night with my son (PG-13, 2009, Shane Acker, Director).  We’re a bit slow, since we don’t spend much on theatre tickets.  This whole post is a major spoiler, so if you want to see the movie without all my impressions first, then please stop reading.  (For the record, these are my own impressions – I had not even known about the movie until my son rented it, and had read nothing about it before writing this.)

My first impression was that it was slightly disturbing, with the main characters being almost scare crow looking rag dolls.  The overall quality of the film’s digital animation, however, is really great.  Most of the intense scenes that involve the good guys being chased by big nasty creatures–and one that is a snake spider evil-chuckie-doll remake-faced machine mix–I would deem quite nasty, and would be too difficult for small children to take.

I was fascinated with this movie, at first, since it involved a scientist who’s creation that he meant for good was turned to evil, and since it brought up Christian themes.  These being a church and church-like structure (the latter used by the evil side), and the existence of “the beast.”  I thought it was going to continue with some-sort of bible-based theme.  But no.  We find that the scientist used what one of the alive rag dolls (the one who is primarily mean and refuses to leave a church) called “dark science.”  Of course, they show it as “magic,” and by the end of the movie we find that this magic isn’t bad, it just is.  The military and people who like machines, and bad people, are the ones who took this scientist’s use of the “dark science” and used it for evil.  All of humanity (and apparently, life) ends up being destroyed, and the alive rag dolls – nine in all – are the only “living” things left.  They are not biological, but are machines themselves (!) that had been animated each by one-ninth of the scientist’s soul.

Once the beast and then his mega brain machine are finally destroyed, five of the rag doll souls are lifted and assimilated into the sky (using a sort-of pentagram).  This causes rain, finally, and the closing scene shows little green things in the rain.  One assumes that somehow these green things are the beginning of new actual life on the planet.  How the impartial soul of one man can mix with thunderheads to make rain that brings life is a very big question!  At any rate, Christianity is shown as an era that ended in catastrophe (although the mean and fearful doll that always hid in church sacrificed himself in the end), and that the “magic” used throughout the movie was always there and always will be.  It is the reality behind all (or so says Acker).

Of People and Cattle (on the Tyranny of Walmart)

How many of you would categorize a good employer as one who makes you work while you are sick or injured?  At a Walmart not too far away from where I live (there are number of them), a lower-level manager was injured recently and went to the emergency room.  Her injury:  a dislocated knee cap.  Instead of allowing her to obtain a leave of absence, they are requiring her to go to their own doctor.   Often this does not work out well for the employee and can lead to being reprimanded for taking “unwarranted” sick days.  The information from the ER doctor was not good enough . . . (she doesn’t have her own insurance from Walmart because it is too expensive).   And this is the norm.

I write this, having heard horror stories from my friend who has worked for Walmart for 2.5 years (at two different locations).  Their callousness and inhumanity are mind-boggling if not heart wrenching.   One lady actually miscarried her baby after being forced by Walmart to move carts outside for a half-hour, and do heavy lifting inside, where she normally worked.  She was very visibly pregnant at the time.

While Walmart has changed some of its policies after having numerous lawsuits filed against it, they really are the same organization.  A newer policy tells employees that if they feel ill, to let their supervisor know and they will put them in a less customer-conspicuous place to work.   Employees are very strongly discouraged from going home if ill, or from calling in if sick.  My friend has gone to work sick a number of times simply because he will get into trouble – official trouble – if he calls in sick.  Trying to get employees to behave responsibly is one thing, but employers have a responsibility too.  They are human and part of the human race, and need to treat other humans with consideration and respect.  I know it sounds really trite to have to say that, but so much of what I hear just sounds so in-human.

Scheduling people to work until 12 midnight, and then having them work at 9 am the next day, is not considerate, to say the least.  There are so many bad practices that come out of Walmart, it would be very hard to list them all.  Supervisors and managers don’t seem to know what’s going on half the time either.  Maybe it’s more than half the time . . . , certainly the way Walmart promotes employees appears to be very arbitrary.   And, there are very few full-time positions.

Have you tried seeing what jobs are available from the Walmart website?  You can’t, unless you apply first (!).  That is odd in itself, but it gets better.  Employees cannot apply for other jobs either, unless they are on the clock.  My friend has not been allowed to review jobs and apply for them while he is working, yet he’s not even allowed to do it when he’s not working.   One can only be thankful that Walmart isn’t the government.

The customers aren’t always treated well, either.  I had a coffee maker from Walmart go bad on me recently.  It was a GE coffee maker, but Walmart’s name is actually embedded in the coffee maker too.  Amazingly, there is a two-year warranty on this coffee maker.  So, since it stopped working in just a few months, I called the number in the manual to ask how I should deal with it (even though it was printed right in the booklet to take it back to Walmart).  The man I talked with was very nice, and said to simply take it back to Walmart and there should be no problems whatsoever (I didn’t need the box, and I didn’t even need the receipt, he said – I had the receipt but not the box).  Under the warranty, there was no other option than returning it to Walmart.  At Walmart, it was a whole different story!  The associate I first spoke to said I couldn’t return it, since it was just over 3 months after I had purchased it (she was treating it like a regular return).  I told her that it was under warranty and I was supposed to take it to a Walmart.  She wasn’t nice.   She had the manager talk with me about it, and he didn’t want to take it back either.  I asked if he would call the number, then, that was right there in the manual.  Finally, after having to get flustered for awhile and being treated like some kind-of criminal, he agreed to take it back.

The solution?  Boycotting might have some effect, if enough people did it.  No matter what has happened with Walmart, however, the employees are the ones who have suffered.  Walmart’s history has been one of lying (even in court), obfuscating, and hiding.  It may be better for investors – for any of us who own Walmart stock – whether directly or through a 401K plan, to inform them of our concerns and ask for change.  Check those groups of stocks your financial company manages.  If Walmart stock is included, you own a part of Walmart.  Ask that the problems be fixed, not hidden.

If you want to get first-hand information from associates, you can read reviews here:  Working at Wal-Mart — Reviews by Employees

Other sources of information:

Wal-Mart’s (Un)sustainability Index

Wal-Mart Watch

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Cost

MOOoooo . . .

Related Articles

• Editorial: A Million Women vs. Wal-Mart (nytimes.com)

Revelation of Love: Summaries of Julian of Norwich’s 16 Visions (part 1 of 3)

Cover of Revelation of Love

Revelation of Love:  Summaries of Julian of Norwich’s 16 Visions

Our soul is loved so preciously by him, our highest good, that it is beyond all human understanding.  In truth, no human alive can fathom how much, how sweetly and tenderly, our maker loves us” (Skinner p 13).

1.  The first showing (vision) is a base for the rest, Julian says:  “all the showings that follow are grounded and oned” in this first showing (p 1).

(1) Copious blood came from Jesus’ head.  Jesus’ love for us is close, familiar; He hangs on us like clothes, and he will never take His tender love from us.

(2) Trinity shown and gave her full joy, as it will be in heaven.  “This was shown to me in the first and in all other showings:  that where Jesus appears, the Blessed Trinity is understood” (p 8).  This knowledge is enough for any believer to withstand the temptations of the devil.

(3) Mary, Jesus’ mother, shown in a physical way.  She had marveled that her maker would want to be born of her.

(4) Jesus shows her something small, in her hand, the size of a hazelnut.  He told her that it was “all that is made.”  Even though it looked like it could fade away, He said that it will last forever, just as we will last forever.  Yet we must realize that created things are nothing – that we need to come to God without any created thing between us.   “He is our endless home:  he only made us for himself; he remakes us by his blessed passion and always keeps us in his blessed love.  All this is down to his goodness” (p 11).

(5) God wants us to pray simply–not thinking that we need special skill–but relying on the assurance of His goodness.  We may ask for anything we wish.  Our Lover desires to have us, and our desire to have Him will not cease.  “For now it is his will that we be busy knowing and loving him until that time comes to fulfillment in heaven; which was the meaning and purpose of this teaching of love that was shown . . .” (p 14).

(6)  Christ is holy and to be feared, yet he is most “homely” (close and familiar) and courteous.   This should fill us with utmost comfort and joy.  He wants us to believe this until we are united with him.  “But on this earth no one can know this marvelous homeliness, unless our Lord shows it specially, or with some excess of grace it is given inwardly of the Holy Spirit” (p 16).  This showing is for all Christians.

(7)  (This is sort of an addendum, since Julian basically outlined six points [roughly as I have them above].)  The showings are for all believers.  We are to love our fellow Christians.   “God is all that is good, as to my sight.  God has made all things that are made; and God loves all that he has made.  So that he who loves all his fellow Christians in general, seeing how God has made them, loves everything it is possible to love.  For in humankind that is to be saved is gathered in everything made . . .” (p 19).

2.  About Jesus’ passion and seeing God.

(1)  Julian saw Jesus on the cross, with much blood and scorn, and with much change of color.  The discoloration and wretchedness of the skin was to show that Christ was clothed in our own sinful flesh.  The Trinity made us in its image, so when we fell, only our maker could redeem us.  Julian refers to this as “again making,” where we are made anew, not just bought back.

(2)  We are to seek God, yet we are blind to knowing it until He shows us.  “And thus I saw him and I sought him; I had him, yet I wanted him.  And this is and should be our common working in this life, as I see it” (p 22).  We would be so blessed if we only trusted in God:

There was one time when my understanding was led down into the seabed, and there I saw hills and dales, all green as if the seaweed and gravel were overgrown with moss.  Then I understood that if any man or woman were under the deep sea and have sight of God, knowing God as he truly is, with us continually, then they would be safe in body and soul:  indeed, they would have more solace and comfort than the whole world could tell.  For he wants us to believe that we see him continually, even though it seems to us that we see him very little, since in this way he will make us daily grow in grace.  For he will be seen and he will be sought; he will be waited for and he will be trusted (22).

When we seek God, we please Him.  If we see Him clearly, it’s because of His own will and timing.  It is just as good for the soul to seek Him as it is to see Him.

3.  God made everything, but He also works in everything that is done. “I saw God in a point,” Julian write, because God is in all things (p 25).  God does all things and nothing happens by chance.  But what of sin and evil?, pondered Julian.   She was not shown our sins, only that Jesus works in us fully and that all things are done well.  “While to us some deeds may seem well done, others evil, this is not so in God’s sight.  For since all things have their ground in God’s making, so all that is done belongs to God’s doing” (p 26).  All has been ordained from the beginning.  We must just cease our own judgment about what is going on, trust God, and just enjoy Him.

4.  Jesus’ body is scourged with much loss of blood. This vision is short, showing Jesus losing so much blood Julian could hardly see the wounds.  But the blood kept stopping, in that it did not drip down and down (apparently disappearing).  It did, however, descend to “hell” (that is, the waiting place of old) to deliver the Old Testament saints.  His blood is most plenteous to save all those who will be saved, and it is the most precious fluid, and it is our birthright.

5.  Satan is overcome by Jesus’ passion. Satan is sorrowed because he sees all the souls that are saved, and he sees that what he does actually helps us.   “ . . . and he can never do so much evil as he wishes, for God has taken his power up into his own hands.  For as I see it, there can be no wrath with God, for he is our endless Lord, having regard to his own honor as well as the profit of all who will be saved” (p 30).  Our Lord scorns Satan’s malice, and he wants us to do the same; at this Julian greatly laughed, and wants us to laugh along with her.

6.  The Lord thanks his servants in heaven. He showers them with love and gladness in his own house; to see the Godhead merry, face to face, fills heaven with joy.  There are three degrees of bliss for souls who served God in any way.  One, thankfulness from God to each one that is so full that it doesn’t compare to the total pain and suffering here.  Two, this thanks will be show to everyone in heaven, so it is even more honorable.  Three, the thanks will always continue, and each person shall be rewarded – even if they willingly served the Lord only one day.  “And so the more a loving soul sees this courtesy of God, the more gladly will they serve him all the days of their life” (p 33).

7.  We feel good and we feel bad spiritually, but we are kept by the goodness of God no matter how we feel. It is hard to summarize this showing since the whole thing is so comforting, and it is not very long.  I would like to quote Julian at length:

I was filled full of an everlasting sureness that took hold of me in power without any pain or dread.  The feeling was so glad and so spiritual that I was in all peace and rest, so that nothing on earth might grieve me.  Yet this lasted but a while; then I was changed, left to myself with all the heaviness and weariness of life—I was burdened with myself, so that I barely had patience to live (pp 33-34).

This vision was shown to my understanding, that it is necessary for some souls to feel this way, sometime in comfort and sometime failing, left all alone to themselves.  For God wants us to know that it is he who keeps us surely whether we be in woe or weal (p 34).

When it pleases him, our Lord gives freely of himself, and then sometimes he suffers us to feel in woe.  Yet both are one and the same love; for it is God’s will that we hold ourselves in his comfort with all our might (p 34).

8.  Jesus’ pains as he died.  Julian sees Christ die slowly, his color changing and his flesh becoming dried.  She speaks of a cold wind that dries him and pains him.  The description is detailed.  One of her prayer requests had been to share in his pain, so this is a fulfillment of that.  She realizes that if she had known what the pain was like, she wouldn’t have prayed for it.  However, what is the worse pain she can have, and by extension, any of us?  To see our Love suffer.  “Here I felt truly that I loved Christ so much above myself that there was no worse pain I might suffer than to see him in pain” (p 39).  He suffered the pains of all humanity that will be saved, so he suffered more than the whole of humanity itself.

All creatures that could suffer did so at Christ’s dying.  “And in general, everyone—even those who knew him not—suffered as they felt the loss of the comfort from God’s inner keeping” (p 40).  God withdrew at this time and Jesus, as well as us, were made nothing.

Julian for the first time brings up the distinction between our outer “sensual” nature, and our inner “substance.”  It was her sensual aspect that repented of wanting to share in Christ’s sufferings, but in her inner spiritual substance, she did not.  She purposed to stay with Christ.  The inner part is kept in peace and love, and the inner is master over the outer; the inner wills steadfastly to be with Christ.  The inner draws the outer by grace, and they will be oned by Christ.

As he seemed about to die, everything changed.  Julian saw his face and she was “as happy as could be.”  What he showed her was that it is the Lord’s plan that we be on the cross with him, dying in our pain and passion.  When we die, we will immediately be with Him blissfully.  Our own suffering is to make us heirs with him.  And the greater our pains, the greater will be our reward in heaven.

9.  The Trinity is glad for Christ’s passion and we are to be encouraged by this. Julian gives us a conversation between her and Christ, so it would be good to reproduce it here:

Then our good Lord asked me, “Are you pleased I suffered for you?”  I said, “Yes, dear Lord, in your mercy:  yes, good Lord, bless you always.”  Then our good Lord Jesus replied, “If you are pleased, then I too am pleased.  This is my joy, my bliss, my endless liking that I was ever able to suffer for you.  For truly, if I could have suffered more, I would have suffered more” (p 46).

She sees three “heavens,” all equal, and each one “belonging to the blessed manhood of Christ,” and more specifically to his passion.  The first has the Father in it, spiritually, which is to say that the Father is in Christ.  There is joy here, which is the Father’s good pleasure.  Here is the prize that the Father gave him, Jesus’ crown, and that prize is all who are saved.   Jesus lets her know that he would die innumerable times out of love for us.  Because he was a man, he only had to do it—die—once, but his attitude is that out of sheer love, he’d do it over and over again.  So, what He also means by this is, what else would he not do for us?

The second “heaven” is hardly described at all, but it has happiness in it, which is the honor of the son.  There was much pain in his passion, yet his love exceeds the pain as much as heaven is above the earth.  And this love was “without beginning” (p 47).  His passion was perfect.

The third “heaven” represents the Holy Spirit and endless liking, which refers to the endless rest of the Holy Spirit.  Julian was shown Jesus’ passion five different ways:  the bleeding of his head; the discoloring of his face; the profuse bleeding from the scourging; the “deep dying”; and, the joy and bliss.

For God wants us to share in his pleasure at our salvation, taking comfort and strength that we have been saved.  He wants our soul to be busy at this task, merrily cheered by his grace.  . . .  Jesus wants us to take heed of all the bliss that is in the blessed Trinity for our salvation; and that we desire to have as much liking in the spirit, with his grace, as is already said:  that is to say, the liking we take in our salvation should be similar to Christ’s own joy, so far as it is possible on this earth (p 48-49).

10.  The Lord’s heart was broken for love. This is a short, but intensely loving vision.  Jesus shows Julian his wound, and it is large enough to save all who will be saved.  She realizes his heart was broken in two.  Jesus said to her, “Lo, how I loved you” (p 50).  He has endless bliss in our salvation, and wants to be glad in it.  Whatever we pray for that is toward our holiness, he will grant.

11.  A showing of Mary, Jesus’ mother. Out of all “his creatures,” Jesus’ mother gives him the most delight and honor.  He made her high and noble out of love for us.  “I am not taught that I should long to see her bodily presence while I am here, but simply the good virtues of her holy soul—her truth, her wisdom, and her love.  Whereby I may learn to know myself and reverently dread my God” (p 52).  Julian had prayed to see Mary, but she was not shown her bodily here; she was shown spiritually.  We are to love her because Jesus loves her.

12.  Jesus is the most worthy being. Julian sees Jesus in a more glorified state than she had seen before, and she understood that our souls will never have rest until we come to him.  Then we will know true life, joy, and happiness.  She was shown a great many words, actually too many to write or understand.  Yet, she says, the reader could come to understand them through God’s grace.  Julian did write these words of Jesus down:

I it am, I it am;

I it am that is highest;

I it am that you love;

I it am that you like;

I it am that you serve;

I it am that you long for;

I it am that you desire;

I it am that you mean;

I it am that is all;

I it am that holy Church preaches and teaches you;

I it am that showed myself to you here.

13.  There is much to this showing.  It involves how noble and excellent is Jesus’ works and how our blame will be turned to honor.  All things will be made well. Jesus takes Julian back to her feeling of longing for him, and is shown that each one of us has sin which holds us back, and the sin makes us unclean and not to his liking.  So she wonders why sin was not prevented in the first place.  Jesus answers her:

Sin is necessary, but all shall be well.  All shall be well; and all manner of thing shall be well” (p 55).  Sin is all that is not good; it is not substance, but is known by the pain it causes.  “Yet this pain is indeed something, as I see it, for it purges and makes us know ourself as we ask for mercy . . . .  And our good Lord, with all the tender love he has for all those that shall be saved, comforts readily and sweetly . . . .  Therefore it would be a great unkindness to wonder or complain of sin to God, since he puts no blame on me (p 55).

Julian beheld that there was a great secret that God will make known in heaven, and that is why sin was allowed.  And God’s servants will have sorrow, anguish, and tribulation in this world.  This is to prevent them from being pompous and vain.  On the other hand, she sees that when we show compassion and charity, that is Christ; it’s a pouring out of self, just as Christ emptied himself in his passion.  When we realize how Christ’s own emptying and his pain far exceeds anything we might experience, we are saved from grumbling about our own pain.  We realize, too, that because of our sin we deserve it.  Yet “. . . with his great courtesy he does away with all our blame, beholding us with compassion and pity like children who are innocent whom he can never reject” (p 57).  Julian is still dismayed at all of sin and suffering, however.  So Jesus tells her that Adam’s sin was the greatest harm that has been done, or ever will be, but that Jesus’ good work far exceeds Adam’s harm.

There are two parts to this truth, about Jesus’ good work.  The first part is open and known, concerning our salvation, and this is our “business.”  “The more plentifully we accept this joy, with reverence and meekness, the more thanks we deserve of him and the more progress we ourselves make.  Thus may we come to see that it is our lot to enjoy our Lord” (p 59.  The second part is hidden from us, and out of obedience we should not try to find it out.  “The saints in heaven wish to know nothing save what our Lord would show them, since their love and desire is ruled only by the will or our Lord. . . .  And here I was taught that we should trust and find joy only in our blessed Saviour Jesus for all things” (p 59).