Julian of Norwich was a recluse--that is, she was a solitary nun who lived inside an enclosed space by herself; that was her calling. Her enclosed space was inside the Norwich church in England, if I recall correctly. When she was very ill one day, she had visions that she later recorded, which come to us in a book called Revelations of Divine Love
. I read that some time ago (it's a short book), and while some of the medieval Catholic imagery is strange to me, I remember two things I liked very much. One was that Christ showed her something very small in his hand, the size of a walnut, and when she asked what it was he said it was everything that is. The other was this saying: "It behoved that there should be sin, but all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well."That last saying, "All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well," appears in a T.S. Eliot poem, in which I believe he is quoting a sermon by Austin Farrer.
I have to go get ready right now, or I'll be late to church.
2 comments:
hey, thanks for this. things haven't been going so well for me since the Bad Thing happened, and i am for a couple of weeks a refugee from my own church that i love.
today i went to another church three hours away by car and they were very kind to me.
i cold not stand to be among strangers for the first sunday of advent and i ave visited with these people on and off for five years.
so it was good to be among friends and then i came back to the hotel and read your post and, well, the quote from julian of norwich was just the right thing for me and maybe it will take some time yet but maybe things will be all right for me, too.
tomorrow i'm going to go to an art museum and maybe relax before having to go back in and face things.
wish me luck.
and pray, please.
Sorry it's a rough patch. I hope and trust that all will be well.
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