Today ( 8th May) the Church of England remembers Julian of Norwich
In 1373, when she was 30 years old, Julian had a visionary experience during a serious illness.
After she had thought about it — perhaps soon after the experience, perhaps as much as fifteen years later — she wrote a relatively brief account of the visions and what they meant to her. But in 1393, she was still meditating on her experience and perhaps had begun to write a longer, more theologically-centered analysis. By 1394 she had become an anchorite, living in a cell attached to the parish church of St. Julian in Norwich (which may be the reason for the name we know her by); she was visited there by Margery Kempe (a particular heroine of mine) in about 1413, and she was still living there in 1416.
Julian’s writing as still in print and well worth reading – this extract is one of my favourites.
Because of the great, infinite love which God has for all humankind, he makes no distinction in love between the blessed soul of Christ and the lowliest of the souls that are to be saved . . . .
We should highly rejoice that God dwells in our soul and still more highly should we rejoice that our soul dwells in God.
Our soul is made to be God’s dwelling place, and the dwelling place of our soul is God who was never made.
