Prayer as joyous and satisfying link to God and religion

Martin Israel writes a romantic and compelling meditation on Julian of Norwich’s ‘Revelations of Divine Love’. He contemplates their significance or relevance in an ‘age where disregard for authority and intellectual arrogance have dominated the seats of learning’ and he says that ‘the capacity to discern the future and divine meaning is deeply imprinted in man’s psyche, and it forms the basis of the religious impulse that is an undeniable part of the human personality’. Israel concludes that the Revelations are a ‘happy, optimistic conclusion’ and that they ‘impart meaning to the human situation’. In Chapter 41 of the Long Translation, Julian conveys the meaning of prayer and the two qualities most needed for prayer, ‘righteousness and sure trust, which is accepted by and pleases God.
Israel says that ‘it is by prayer that God can effect a deep contact with the soul and the personality of the individual’. That is what will be the focus of this essay. First, this essay will explore the connection with God and thus with religion prayer creates as described by Chapter 41 and the surrounding Chapters on prayer. Secondly, the modes of rhetoric that Julian of Norwich has employed to convey the showings she received will be contemplated. Finally, this essay will conclude with an opinion on Julian’s ‘joyful proclamation of the goodness of God’.

Key Words:
Prayer, link, God, optimistic, religion.


Israel, M. "A Meditation on Dame Julian's Revelations of Divine Love." 14th Century English Mystics Newsletter 4.2 (1980): 66-81.
Norwich, Julain od. Revelations of Divine Love. Trans. E Spearing. London: Penguin Books, 1998. Print.