A Revelation of Love

This is my setting of passages from Revelations of Divine Love, written by the 14th-15th century mystic Julian of Norwich. Today it is widely acknowledged to be one of the great Christian spiritual classics. Julian wrote the “short text” soon after she recovered from a severe illness and describes sixteen visions that she had received: revelations of God's infinite love. The second version (“long text”), written perhaps twenty years later, is a series of expansive meditations on what she had been shown.
This work begins with a spoken passage, the very first words of her work, directly followed by a soliloquy that includes some of Julian's best known quotations (e.g. "all shall be well"). I chose to adapt Julian's language into modern English, while remaining as faithful as possible to the style and intent of her original text.
The beautiful and moving performance is by Kiersten Honaker. The photo by is by Matt Brown on Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0: the statue of Julian of Norwich on the exterior of Norwich Cathedral, England, by sculptor David Holgate.
This video is contained in the playlist John Newell Works, found on my TH-cam channel @jnewell384. Scores are available for purchase (print or download) at www.jwpepper.com. For more information about my work visit www.johnnewellmusic.com.