• Didjagedit?1. What role did St. Catherine of

Siena play in the “Great Western Schism” in the late 1300s?

2. What is the “mystical marriage?”3. Why was Hildegard considered a

polymath?

• Didjaredit?4. What is an anchoress or

anchorite?5. Name one of the three wishes

that Julian of Norwich had before she got sick at age 30?

6. According to Julian, there is no greater created thing (aside from Jesus) than ________________?

Opening of Westminster Cathedral Manuscript

 of Julian of Norwich's 

Showing of Love 

These are the first works in English known to be by a woman.

Her Life

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyM_z2mmc0

INSIDE OF JULIAN’S CELL

JULIAN’S CELL

STAGES OF PRAYER

1. vocal prayer (ie. rosary)2. meditation, also called methodical prayer,

or prayer of reflection, in which may be included meditative reading. (ie. Praying with Scripture)

3. affective prayer: freely expressing ourselves in words to God (usually culminating from the previous forms of prayer.)

4. Contemplation: prayer of simplicity, or of simple gaze.

Contemplation is Mystical

• Those supernatural acts or states which no effort or labor on our part can succeed in producing, even in the slightest degree or for a single instant, are called mystical. 

• Mystical states are called– 1. first, supernatural or infused– 2. extraordinary, indicating that the intellect operates

in new way, one which our efforts cannot bring about; – 3 passive, to show that the soul receives something

and is conscious of receiving it. (By way of distinction ordinary prayer is called active.) 

Levels of Contemplation

1. incomplete mystical union, or the prayer of quiet 

2. the full, or semi-ecstatic, union, sometimes calls the prayer of union

3. ecstatic union, or ecstasy; and4. transforming or deifying union,

or spiritual/mystical marriage of the soul with God.

Charisms

• Charisms are given by God for the benefit of others than the mystic.

• They may be true miracles, like private revelations, divine locutions, the stigmata, speaking in tongues, levitation, transportation through space, knowing events at a great distance of space, the gift of prophecy.

• “Visionaries” were people who were gifted with these spiritual charisms.

• Visionaries are not necessarily contemplatives, but often the two are seen together in the lives of the saints. Contemplation is a higher form of prayer than visions and other charisms.