HISTORICAL CONTENT Essay, Research Paper

Julian of Norwich lived during the late fourteenth century- earlyfifteenth century. Many things were happening in Europe at that time.The main thing going on at that time was the Bubonic or Black Plague.The plague spread in waves. It was spread by fleas, which got it frominfected ship rats. The plague lasted about one-hundred years. TheBubonic Plague was very influential in the works of art and the waypeople felt at that time period. Another thing going on was the hundredyears war. This was actually lasted one-hundred fifteen years, and wasfought between the French and British. During the life of Julian theAvignion Papacy was going on. This was when the popes moved fromRome to France and the French kings had a lot of power because thekings and the popes worked together to help each other out. it was avery confusing time at one point they had a French and a roman pope.Eventually, it was all straightened out with some help from Catherineof Sienna who had a dream were God told her the pope needed to be inRome. She told her story to pope Gregory XI who returned the papacyto Rome. The first great work of literature in the English language wasThe Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1390.Chaucer was, at various times, a court page, a soldier, and a diplomat.His travels exposed him to a variety of men and women, many ofwhom served as models for his vivid characters. Chaucer tells the storyof a group of pilgrims bound for the shrine of Thomas ? Becket, whoentertained themselves by telling tales. Also at that time the Aztecempire was taking off and it was taken over by the Spaniards in 1521.

CONTENT

In Julian?s visions, she believes Jesus is communicating directly withher because the images she sees are so vivid and real, and she believesshe felt Heaven. It was then that Julian realized that the trinity iseverything good in the world. She felt unworthy to receive theseimages but God still gave them to her. She feels Mary?s thoughts andrealizes that Jesus wanted to live as a human, as one of his Father?screatures. After this is when she decides to turn her life over to God.She feels that God is always with us, helping and loving. Realizing thatGod loves everything, no matter how big or small, rich or poor. Julianbelieves we, like god, must consider every little thing and love it. Theman-made things are what God thinks we are too good for. He want?sus to have the best, which is him, and remember that he made people tolove other people. As we saw in these papers we read, God?s messageto us is that we will all die in the end, and our souls will either go withHim or His outcast angel, Lucifer. Us humans see death as a bad thingbut it should be looked at with glory because we are going to a betterplace with better people and the only Lord. However some people canbe damned to hell if they don?t follow God?s simple laws. The Lordhas a great deed for us, but it will only be reviled to us when He say?sthe time has come and if we achieve it then we will have made thisworld a better place. In the papers, God as Mother, in my opinionsymbolizes the beginning of all. Mothers are what nurture and protectand care for us from the beginning. They watch over us and we comefrom them. These images are almost always portrayed as God, wecome from him and he watches over us, like a mother.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

There are some very moving points in Julian?s visions. Somepoints she makes in her book are very moving and get me thinkingabout my own personal views on the stuff she talks about. I am at timevery courious about my religion, as you will see later in the essay. I dobelieve there is a God and I will always believe that, but at times ithard to because when I pray to him I don?t know if he is going toanswer me. Yet I always pray because I know that he will hear at leastone of them. Julian talks about the trinity. She says ?…the trinity is God andGod is the trinity.? And she proceeds to talk about how the trinity iseverything good in the world. I, like many, am not sure how the trinityworks, but if the trinity is everything good, and the trinity is God, andGod is everywhere, then why do all these bad things happen? How canGod let people suffer and be tortured in His name? Many Christianssay it is a test of faith, but then is it God who decides if you are goingto die and then how long before you will live? Jesus? close friends evensuffered long torturous deaths to be with Him. Now, would make yourfriends suffer a long, hard death to hang around with you. Now Imyself am torn on which way to go about capital punishment. I believethat the people who have killed others for no reason that they shouldhave to pay for their crimes. On the hand I as a catholic do not believethat people should die. I contemplate that the government should find abig island out in the ocean and put all the murders, and convictstogether. Allow them to live by themselves with enough clothes andwater. But they should also have to grow their own food, and take careof their home. Not to get me wrong, the US coast guard would have topatrol the coast so they won?t escape. This way they live together andcan kill themselves, but do not have to spend time in a crappie prison. Back to before, why is God only shows himself to a select few?It would seem to me if He is so great and powerful, He would wantHimself to be known to all, instead of making us all play a guessinggame. Another thing is, how do we know we are worshipping the rightGod? The ancient people didn?t worship our God, or even one God,but did they get into heaven? There are many different religions in theworld today, how do we know that Buddha, Muhammad, or Zeus isn?tthe right God? All these ideas are one side of what I think, and I pray that Goddoesn?t punish me for saying these things. I know of many reasons thatshow there is a God. Good things do happen, which would back upcertain points Julian makes, such as in chapter five when she says Godis always with us and loving us. I see things in the world that I cannotexplain or that science can?t explain, and God made that happen. thispacket has got me thinking in new, better ways about god.