Mother Father God 

This beautiful word “mother” is so sweet and kind in itself that it cannot be attributed to anyone but God.
—Julian of Norwich, Revelations 60, trans. Mirabai Starr 

Richard Rohr praises Julian’s mystical insight that allowed her to name God “Mother.”  

With these words, Julian offers us an amazing and foundational statement. She is not saying that the most beloved attributes of motherhood can analogously be applied to God, although I am sure she would agree they could. She is saying much more—that the very word mother is so definitive and “beautiful” in most people’s experience (not everybody’s, I must add) that it evokes, at its best, what we mean by God. This is not what most of the world’s religions have taught or believed up to now—except for the mystics. Among these, Julian of Norwich stands as pivotal.  

The concept and human experience of mother is so primal, so big, deep, universal, and wide that to apply it only to our own mothers is far too small a container. It can only be applied to God. This is revolutionary! Mother is, for Julian, the best descriptor for God Herself! I use this to illustrate the courageous, original, and yet fully orthodox character of Julian’s teaching. [1] 

Father Richard considers the archetypal human need for maternal care:  

Julian helps me finally understand one major aspect of my own Catholic culture: why in heaven’s name, for centuries, did both the Eastern and Western Churches attribute so many beautiful and beloved places, shrines, hills, cathedrals, and works of religious art in the Middle East and Europe, not usually to Jesus, or even to God, but to some iteration of Mother Mary? I’ve always thought it was scripturally weak but psychologically brilliant. Many people in Julian’s time didn’t have access to scripture—in fact, most couldn’t read at all. They interpreted at the level of archetype and symbol. The “word” or logos was quite good, but a feminine image for God was even better.   

This seemed to later sola scriptura (by scripture alone) traditions like a huge aberration or even outright heresy. Yet that is how much the soul needed a Mother Savior and a God Nurturer! In a profoundly patriarchal, hierarchical, judgmental, exclusionary, imperial, and warlike period of history and Christianity, I believe it was probably necessary and salutary.  

God is, in essence, like a good mother—so compassionate that there was no need to compete with a Father God—as we see in Julian’s always balanced teachings. [2]  

Mirabai Starr shares Julian’s wisdom:  

I saw three ways to look at the Motherhood of God. The first is that she created our human nature. The second is that she took our human nature upon herself, which is where the motherhood of grace begins. And the third is motherhood in action, in which she spreads herself throughout all that is, penetrating everything with grace, extending to the fullest length and breadth, height and depth. All One Love. [3]  

References:  
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, foreword to The Showings: Uncovering the Face of the Feminine in Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich, trans. Mirabai Starr (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2013, 2022), ix–x.  

[2] Rohr, foreword to Showings, x–xi. 

[3] Julian of Norwich, The Showings: Uncovering the Face of the Feminine in Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Mirabai Starr (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2013, 2022), 164. Selection from chap. 59. 

Image credit and inspiration: Jenna Keiper, The Showings, translation by Mirabai Starr (detail), 2022, photo, Albuquerque. Original translation by Mirabai Starr. Cover art by Erin Currier. Click here to enlarge image. Julian of Norwich gazes at us with calm in the midst of her blazing visions. 

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