THOUGHTS TO PONDER

May 9 marks the anniversary of the death of Julian of Norwich in our Episcopal calendar - the English mystic who lived much of her adult life as an anchoress attached to a Benedictine community in Norwich in the fourteenth century.  An anchoress withdrew from conventional society to pray and to deepen her understanding of God.  She would have moved into a room or rooms set aside for the purpose, and would have remained there for the rest of her life, her need for food and other necessities being provided for by the community, or in some cases by servants who lived in the hermitage for support and companionship. If the image seems strange to us now, it certainly wasn’t unusual then.  Most towns would have had an anchoress as an extension of the communal monastic life.

Dame Julian is best remembered for her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’, her account of sixteen visions or ‘showings’ she experienced during a single day of a grave illness.  These vividly related happenings have stood the test of time, and the scrutiny of the Church, which - quite properly - is fairly cautious about such claims. It asks whether the revelation accords with the teaching of the Church and with reason?  Is it of value to more than just the individual?

What, then, do her ‘showings’ highlight, important enough for her to warrant an entry in the liturgical calendar in May? Three things come to mind (and doubtless there are many more!)  First, she emphasises the mothering qualities in God as well as the traditionally understood fatherly ones.  She recognised the nurturing of the work of Jesus and the Christian’s feeding in the Sacrament as indicative of the Motherhood of God, a concept probably no less challenging for her contemporaries than for ours!

Secondly, she reminds us that everything is potentially a reminder of the nature and presence of God. The  realisation struck as she held a hazelnut in her hand-  that God had made it, therefore God loved it, and that God sustained it. ‘ He made it, He loves it, He keeps it....’ And if a hazelnut, then every other created thing and being. A sort of precursor of Schweizer’s ‘reverence for life.’

Finally, perhaps the words of Julian most often quoted, a reminder that we are ultimately in the hands of a God who wills our fulfilment in relationship with Him, and from whose love nothing can finally separate us:

‘All shall be well, and all shall be well,

All manner of things shall be well...’

It’s fitting that I leave the last word to Dame Julian:

‘Wouldst thou know the Lord’s meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was his meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. Wherefore showed it thee? For love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn more and know more in the same.....’

Mary McMahon