James Finley names how the suffering of Julian’s time resonates with that of our own:
Julian was keenly aware of the suffering of the world during her lifetime. It was the bubonic plague, a truly painful death that swept through and killed many, many people. She saw that. During this time, the Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered. During this time, the church had three popes and each pope excommunicated the other two popes. During this time, there was a hundred-year war with France. She was keenly aware of the suffering and the crisis of the world. Also, I’m sure the people who came to the window of her anchorhold or hermitage to talk with her for spiritual direction unburdened on her their struggles, their fears, and so on.
I think this is where Julian can be especially helpful to us—because we’re so aware of the traumatizing age that we live in, a time of political strife and contention, the brutalities of war, the violence of prejudice, and threats to the environment. We’re sensitized to these things, so how do we then learn to be a healing presence in the midst of an all too often traumatized and traumatizing world? How can Julian’s insight into the mystery of the cross as God’s loving oneness with us help us to stay grounded and present in the midst of the suffering, and not be so easily thrown or overwhelmed by it in our ongoing sensitivity and response to it?…
In the midst of our time, situation, and circumstances, in the deep down depths, there’s a place deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper in this oneness with God’s sustaining oneness with us. [1]
English poet and author Ann Lewin points to the tenacity of Julian’s confidence and hope:
“All shall be well” is one of Julian’s best-known sayings, but we could be forgiven, perhaps, for responding, “You must be joking.” How can anyone who is aware of the reality of life say that all will be well? Christians are sometimes guilty of offering the kind of facile comfort that says, “Don’t worry, things will be better tomorrow.” Experience tells us that they may very well be worse. Julian lived at a time when there were many challenges to well-being, and she must have said “All shall be well” through gritted teeth sometimes: she knew, as we do, that it is a struggle to hold on to that belief when there is so much around us to challenge it. [2]
Lewin points to Julian’s trust in God for encouragement:
[God] did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted, but he said: You will not be overcome. God wants us to pay attention to his words and always to be strong in our certainty, in well-being and in woe, for he loves us and delights in us, and so he wishes us to love him and delight in him and trust greatly in him, and all will be well. [3]
References:
[1] Adapted from James Finley, “Julian of Norwich: Session Two,” Turning to the Mystics, season 6, ep. 4 (Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2022), podcast. Available as MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.
[2] Ann Lewin, Love Is the Meaning: Growing in Faith with Julian of Norwich (Norwich, Norfolk, UK: Canterbury Press, 2010), 50.
[3] Julian of Norwich, Showings 22 (Short text), trans. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), 165.
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.
Story from Our Community:
The Daily Meditations have been part of my morning routine for more than a year. My soul friend and I respond to the Daily Meditations in our own journal, then we exchange responses via email. I’d like to share something I wrote: “‘All will be well,’ says Julian of Norwich. Life is so scary and uncharted. So, we stay in touch. We hold each other’s fears. We spread a contagion of hope and love.”
—MaryLou S.
