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Jamie Kutey
Theo 1001
Dr. Saint-Laurent
23 October 2015

Narrative and Christian Imagination

The Showings of Julian Norwich is about the optimism in finding Christ in the most

difficult of times, and its a journey finding your vocation. Finding God is ultimately due to

creating and longing a wholesome relationship with Him, first. In The Long Loneliness by

Dorothy Day demonstrates the theme of praising God, finding his love within communities

around us through suffering and sin. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Van Auken demonstrates the

importance in finding God in your lifeyour vocationto be able to love him and others with

all of your heart. The works of Julian of Norwich, Dorothy Day, and Sheldon Van Auken all

contain the Christian themes of journeying to God, discovering your vocation, and the effects

suffering and healing have on these authors and their characters. All of these authors experience

suffering and healing throughout their lives, and each uses their suffering as a way to grow closer

to God.

In the Showings of Julian Norwich, Julian shows the suffering and healing of God in her

book quite explicitly. Julian experiences a very different journey to find God, being a mystic, she

sees God in visions. And in this sodenly I saw the reed bloud rynnyng downe from under the

garlande, hote and freyshely, plentuously and lively, right as it was in the tyme that the garland of

thornes was pressed on his blessed head (Baker 8). She is able to discover her vocation through

these visions, and she thought that God could not be angry at us for any reason, helping her reach

God in a different way than others did. Julian suffered to publicly announce her mysticism, and

that suffering helped her find Gods love and joy. His acceptance teaches her about the qualities
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God had to offer to everyone. God made itGod loveth itGod kepyth it was a quote that

emphasized her compassion and longing for God, and his acceptance for all things (Baker 9).

These themes play a big role in how Julian finds her vocation. She wanted to suffer like

God did on the cross in hopes to be a close follower of Him. Suffering was an important matter

for Julian in the sense that she knew suffering was caused by sin, and sin IS suffering. She shows

that Gods suffering is balanced by that of his love and redemption. She realized her vocation

thenbeing an advocate of suffering and sinthat others can still find God through these acts.

Julian emphasizes these to stress Gods severe mercy and his mysteriously attractive nature.

In The Long Loneliness, Day expressed her journey to the church most directly. She

suffered to find God early in her life, but found that confession and being deeply spiritual were

important seeds to be planted in order for her to bring her close to God. I felt that it was

necessary for man to worship, that he was most truly himself when engaged in that act (Day

93). Her vocation was to teach the ways of Jesus literally to others around her. Day founded the

Catholic Worker Movement with the help of Peter Maurin. Her social activist movement

exemplified living in a radical way, The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all

bound to feel, is community. The living together, working together, sharing together, loving God

and loving our brother, and living close to him in community so we can show our love for Him

(Day 243).

The themes captured throughout this book exemplify suffering and searching for her

vocation for a Christ-like life. Day used her suffering to relate to God, and how he suffered for us

reminded her of the potential friendship she could possibly create through helping others with

their sufferings, just how God helped her. If we did our works of mercy for the love of God,in

whose image man had been made, then God would reward us; then we were doing (them) a
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supernatural motive. There was little freedom in this life, except in the realm of motive or

intention (Day 247). Days journey to the church was through loving god and othersfinding

her vocationinstilling non-violent motives to establish a common community. Many times we

have been asked why we spoke of Catholic workers, and so named the paper. Of course it was

not only because we who were in charge of the work, who edited the paper, were all Catholics,

but also we wished to influence Catholics (Day 210).

In A Severe Mercy, Vanauken stresses the themes of vocation, suffering and healing, and

his arduous journey to find God. Van wrote this book as a prayer to God, like Julian of Norwich

did, in order for him to find gratification in his wearisome journey. Although he has a lot of

suffering in his life, he still is able to find God in a unique way, his wife dying. Davy, his wife

was an advocator of Christ but Van was struggling to find Him. The theme of suffering is a

theme in this book because it shows how suffering can lead to a greater good, that is, God. God

saved our loveand, indeed, transformed it into its real and eternal selfin the only way

possible, her death, it was for me, despite grief and aloneness, worth it (Vanauken 219). This

quote symbolizes how God transforms lives to make a greater beingto be in unity with him

to create everlasting life.

Vanaukens goal was to have a pagan love with his wife, and this ultimately led their

relationship to be everlasting and whole, even until Davys death and beyond. Their love is still

flawed because Van struggled to find God. This book is an important message for others to know

that suffering is a part of finding God, and being able to understand the vocation God leads you

to. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; and if thou canst not yet love Him, thou shalt trust Him

with all thy mind, soul, and heart (Vanauken 165). Discovering Gods distinct plan for him
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wasnt easy at all, God had to take away his wife for him to finally understand his calling in life.

The struggles in life are worth it if you are able to come face to face with God in the end.

The Showings Of Julian Norwich, The Long Loneliness, and A Severe Mercy all have a

similar path to finding Christ, and use it as their main focus in their works. Julian emphasized

Gods mercy, Day expressed God mercy as a way to find yourself, and Vanauken saw Gods

Mercy as a way of grief, but also a journey. All alike in the sense that finding a vocation is not

easy, but if you simply seek Gods wisdom, you will have a good chance to connect with him on

a deep spiritual level like these three authors did. All three of these authors also had someone to

help lead them to their vocations along the way; Dorothy had Peter Maurin who linked up with

her to create the Catholic Worker Movement that is still in effect today, Julian of Norwich looked

to God and the events in his life that shaped him to help her decide to be an advocate of Christ,

and Vanauken had his wife, Davy to help guide him to his unknown vocation.

In conclusion, these three books portray intense sufferings, healings, journeys to finding

God, and discovering the right vocation. Readers learn that finding a vocation is not easy,

whatsoever. Dorothy Day struggled to confess her sins and a lot of teens have trouble with that,

but her story teaches others to focus on the community around them and do what is best for it,

not yourself. Julian of Norwich cant explain her relationship with god and describes it like

falling in lovewhich if anyone has fallen in lovethey can truly relate to that analogy.

Vanauken experiences the love of his life die, which all of us have or will experience sometime

in our life, so all of these authors we can relate to in different ways. Its just all about how we

react to these scenarios to be able to grow in our faith with God.

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Works Cited

Baker, Denise Nowakowski. Showings: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. New York:
W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.

Day, Dorothy. The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day. San Francisco: Harper
& Row, 1981. Print.

Vanauken, Sheldon. A Severe Mercy. Davy's Ed., 2nd ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980.
Print.