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One of the things I love about reading Julian in Middle English is that you get a much fuller sense of the meaning of "blessedness." For instance, what we might call the "blessed" or "holy" Trinity, Julian says "blissefull." Full of bliss.
Blessedness, then, isn& #39;t just a vague mark of something divine. It is a real state of being--being filled with joy. And no superficial joy either. The sort of joy that can persist through terror and woe. A Heavenly joy.
We have a similar sense in the Gospels too, through μακαριος, which might be verbosely translated as "happy and abundantly provided for"
"Blessed are the poor" for instance then doesn& #39;t mean "God loves the poor" (though this is certainly a true statement). Rather, it means that the poor are full of joy in God.
Matthew& #39;s turn on this phrase--"poor in spirit"--is interesting too. It hasn& #39;t always been clear what it meant to be poor in spirit, but I think Matthew means something like a "dark night of the soul."
This also has me thinking about the verbal form of "bless." When God blesses things, this makes sense to me--God makes us blissful. But when we "bless the Lord" or saints" I would think the word would have to be taken in a different way. Perhaps we recognize their existing bliss?
