All shall be well: Julian of Norwich

And in this vision, God showed me a little thing, the size of a hazel-nut, lying in the palm of my hand, and to my mind's eye it was as round as any ball. I looked at it and thought, 'What can this be?' And the answer came to me, 'It is all that is made.' I wondered how it could last, for it was so small I thought it might suddenly disappear. And the answer in my mind was, 'It lasts and will last forever because God loves it; and in this same way everything exists through the love of God.' In this little thing I saw three attributes: the first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God cares for it.  Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

Julian was the first woman to publish a book in English (in what we now call "Middle English"). In it she tells of the visions she had in 1373. In it she describes Christ as a mother. In it she assures us that "sin is necessary, but all shall be well. All shall be well; and all manner of thing shall be well."

Today the Episcopal Church celebrates dear Julian's feast day. Eat something wondrously good, with gratitude. She would like that. Remember that C.S. Lewis said her book was dangerous. I think she would like that, too. Stories about her suggest she had a cat. I like that.

There is more information about Julian here , and here is the podcast of a talk (the transcript's there, too) given by Rev. Mimi Dixon, Presbyterian pastor, about her experiences of Julian.

This extraordinary icon was written by Mihai Cucu. This, and his other exquisite icons, can be seen here.

It was Madeleine L'Engle who introduced me to the writings of Julian; for that, and for so much more, I am always grateful.

Comments

[Kevin Ainsworth]

Hi Laurel

In a previous comment to this post I remembered watching a documentary a couple of years ago which mentioned a female Anchorite but I could not remember if it was Julian of Norwich or not. Well, the documentary has just been repeated on BBC4 and it was Julian. It was a ten minute segment in a programme called 'Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places', a series of six 30 minute documentaries. You would find all of them very interesting.

Watching the segment on Julian I found that it had a far greater meaning for me this time because of your post and what I now knew about her. It was fascinating to see Julian's church in Norwich and to see the stained glass window with the inscription 'All shall be well'. It was also fascinating to see where her cell would have been, what views she would have seen from it and what her lifestyle was like for so many years. It was also mentioned that she wrote the first book in English which I had not picked up on first time I saw the documentary but was listening for this time.

I do not know if you can access this series in America but it is well worth watching out for. Julian is in episode 6, the final one, on caves.

As this is still your most recent post then this is, by a good piece of TV scheduling, a relevant comment. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together...?

Regards,

Kevin.

[Laurel Massé]

Hi, Kevin -
Slight correction to your comment: Dame Julian was the first woman to write a book in English, as far as we know. To be absolutely accurate, "Revelations" is the oldest book; there may have been others, but there is no trace of them now.

Blessings, Laurel