A Word to the Weary.
“We thank Thee, Lord, for weary days,
When desert springs were dry,
And first we knew the depth of need
Thy love could satisfy.
Days when beneath the desert sun,
Along the toilsome road,
O’er roughest ways we walked with One—
That One the Son of God.
We thank Thee for that rest in Him
The weary only know,
The perfect wondrous sympathy
We needs must learn below.
The sweet companionship of One
Who once the desert trod;
The glorious fellowship with One
Upon the throne of God.
The joy no desolations here
Can reach, or cloud, or dim;
The present Lord, the living God,
And we alone with Him.
We know Him as we could not know
Through Heaven’s golden years;
We there shall see His glorious Face,
But Mary saw His tears.
The touch that heals the broken heart
Is never felt above;
His angels know His blessedness,
His way-worn saints His love.
And now in perfect peace we go,
Along the way He trod,
Still learning from all need below,
Depths of the heart of God.”
AND others came who were cast down and weary in heart, because they prayed much and often, and it seemed to them that God gave no heed to their prayers; and they feared that they were not amongst His beloved ones, and therefore He heard them not. And to them Julian spoke tenderly, for she pitied them, and knew how sore was their temptation.
“Bethink you,” she said, “of these three things. First, by whom thy prayer springeth. Is it not from God that thou betakest thyself to Him?
“And secondly, how should we use our prayer? Is it not that our will be turned with gladsome joy into the will of our Lord?
“And thirdly, what is the fruit and end of our prayer? Is it not to be made like to our Lord in all things? Is not this what thou desirest in thy heart when thou lookest up to Him? It is for this end that this lovely lesson is taught us. It is our Lord’s will that our prayer and our trust he both alike large; for if we trust not as much as we pray, we do not full worship to our Lord in our prayer.
“And if we pain and weary ourselves, it is that we know not that our praying is a gift given to us by grace of His love; for I am sure that no man asketh mercy and grace with true meaning, but if mercy and grace be first given to him.
“And if it cometh to our mind that we have prayed a long time, and yet it seemeth to us that we have not our asking, let us not therefore be heavy; for I am sure that by our Lord’s meaning, either we abide a better time, or more grace, or a better gift.
“And He willeth that we have understanding or three things that follow. The first is our noble and excellent making; for His hands have made us. The second, our precious and blessed new making. For He hath created us anew in Christ Jesus. The third, that all the things He hath made beneath us, He keepeth in being for His love to us, for He hath made them to serve us.
“Then meaneth He thus, as if He said, ‘Behold and see that I have done all this before thy prayer, and now thou art, and thou prayest to Me.’
“And it is His will that we pray; for all things that our Lord hath ordained, to do. And the joy and bliss He hath in our prayers, and the thanks and the worship that we shall have therefore, passeth the understanding of all creatures in this life below. For prayer is a righteous understanding of that fullness of joy that is for to come, with true longing and assured trust, and savoring and seeing our bliss that we be ordained to, and naturally this maketh us to long.
“True understanding and love, with sweet beholding of our Saviour, make us by His grace to trust Him fully. How marvelous is it that He stirreth us to prayer, for that which it liketh Him to do! for which prayer, that is His gift, He will reward us and give us endless weed. It is as if He shows us so great pleasance and so great liking, that it might seem He were much beholden to us for each good deed that we do; and yet it is He that doth it.
“So let us with His tender grace, in our own meek continual prayer, come unto Him now in this life, and we shall have many privy teachings of sweet spiritual sights and feelings, measured to us as our simpleness may bear it.
“For truth seeth God, and wisdom beholdeth, God; and of these two cometh the third, and that is a marvelous delight in God, which is love.
“Wherefore God rejoiceth in the creature, and the creature in God, endlessly marveling; in which marveling he seeth his God, his Lord, his Maker, so high, so great, so good, in regard of him that is made, that scarcely the creature seemeth to itself to exist. But the brightness and clearness of truth and wisdom inaketh hirer to see and know that he is made for love; in which love God endlessly keepeth him in endless continuant love, with secureness of keeping, and blissful salvation.
“For truly it is to rue as if it had been said in friendliness to me, ‘Look up to Heaven to His Father.’ And then I saw well, with the faith I felt, that it, there was nothing between the Cross and Heaven that could harm me.
“And I answered inwardly with all the might of my soul, ‘Nay, I may not fear, for Thou art my Heaven.
“Yea rather would I have been left in pain and sorrow till Domesday, than have come to Heaven otherwise than by Him. For me liked no other Heaven than Jesus, which shall be my bliss when there I come. And till then I know that all my life is grounded and rooted in love.”
“But it is thus, Mother Julian, that He loves you; and how can I believe that thus He can love me, who am not an anchoress, but one simple and unlearned, living the common life, with cares of my household and worldly business, and little time to pray alone?”
“Dear friend, I say not this to them that be wise, for they wit it well already, but I say it to you that be simple, for ease and comfort. For we be all one in love. And God hath never showed to me that He loveth me better than the least soul that is in grace. For I am sure there be many that never had teaching or light but of the common teaching of the holy Church, that love God better than I.
“Therefore if I think of this love, and look only at myself, I see that I am naught; but I know that this love is the love with which all who are Christian people are loved of God.”
“But I am so sinful, and so often do I fall, and bring myself into shame and many troubles by reason of my sin. And does God then take no count of my sin, but love me still?”
“True is it that inasmuch as we fail, in so much we fall. Our failing is dreadful, and our falling is shameful. But yet in all this the sweet eye of pity and love departeth never from us, nor doth the working of mercy cease. This is of the abundance of God’s love, that grace worketh our dreadful failing into plenteous and endless solace; and grace worketh our shameful falling into high worshipful rising—yea, grace worketh our sorrowful dying into holy blissful life.
“And that contrariousness which is now in us, our Lord God of His goodness maketh it to us full profitable; for contrariousness is the cause of all our tribulations, and all our woes. And our Lord Jesus taketh them, and sendeth them up to Heaven, and then they are made more sweet and more delectable than heart may think, or tongue can tell.
“And when we come thither we shall find them all turned into very fairness and endless worship; and the solace and bliss so overpassing the pain and shame and sorrow, that when we come up and receive that sweet reward which grace has wrought for us, we shall thank and bless our Lord, endlessly rejoicing that ever we suffered woe; for we shall know a property of blessed love in God, which we might never have known without woe going before.”