Rectors Reflections MAY 2006

 Rector’s Reflections: “In God is our true repose.”

Dame Julian (or Juliana) of Norwich , England , lived between 1342 and at least 1414. We know that she lived as an “anchorite”, in several rooms attached to the east part of the Church of St. Julian , in Norwich . There are still traces of the structure. She probably had a servant who would have kept house and cooked for her. She was available to give counsel and spiritual direction to pilgrims who sought her out at the church. Since there was an Augustinian Friory across the street from the church, she may have borrowed books and conversed with the monks.

She lived during a time of great upheaval, when the cities of Europe , including Norwich , were repeatedly hit with the plague (from 1348 onwards). It was also during the time of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), the Peasant’s Revolt (1381), and the Great Papal Schism (1309-1377) when there were two popes contesting for the See of Peter. It was during the reigns of Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. Yet, none of these momentous world events seem to have been of any concern to Julian, for there is no mention of them in her writings.

We know about Julian from two sources: one is a reference to her in the “Autobiography of Marjorie Kempe”, the first known autobiography written in English, and the second is her own writings which she entitled “Shewings” or “Revelations of Divine Love”, of which there are three major manuscripts. These were only re-discovered in the twentieth century.

On May 8, 1373, when she was thirty and a half years old, and on her deathbed from a unknown illness, she experienced sixteen visions or showings ( first, fifteen visions, then a dream, then the last vision), about which she writes some time later. She wrote that “for twenty years after the time of this shewing, save three months, I had teaching inwardly.” Her writings reflect a deep and thoughtful intellect, with the capacity to think theologically and to reference scripture. She appears to have been well read; although she probably lacked formal education. She describes her visions with careful psychological insight, emphasizing that she was sound in mind, and not the victim of delusions.

Julian wrote this, from one of her showings: “And God showed me a little thing, in the palm of my hand, round as a ball, no bigger than a hazel nut. I gazed at it, puzzling at what it might be. And God said to me, ‘It is all of creation.’ I was amazed that it could last and did not suddenly disintegrate and fall into nothingness, for it was so tiny. And again God spoke to me, ‘It lasts, both now and forever, because I cherish it.’ And I understood that everything has its being owing to God’s care and love .”

Julian is saying that if God stopped thinking about all of creation, even for a millisecond, we would cease to exist! So often we imagine that we are in control of our lives, when in fact, at every moment, our very being is dependent on God’s grace. What is most remarkable is that even when we ignore God, God doesn’t stop caring and loving us.

Julian also wrote, “We will find not rest for our heart or spirit as long as we seek it in insignificant things which cannot satisfy us, rather than in God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and beneficent. God is our true repose . And he desires to be known and is pleased that we should rest in him.”

Knowing, deep in our being, “in our bones,” that God cares for and loves all of creation is the source of true peace, and Jesus is the source of that deep knowing . When our lives are embraced by his life, by the Risen Lord, we know the true, forgiving, healing, reconciling, all-embracing love of God, whom Jesus called “Abba” or Daddy. Knowing Jesus is how we find our true repose in God.

May is the season of new life and renewed life. It is part of the Easter Season, as well. May is probably the month we most associate with spring here in southern Michigan . Everything has turned green and begun to blossom. Birds and animals are giving birth. There is a great expansion of life, the living evidence of God’s on-going love for creation.

This is my spring challenge: to seek an expansion of our lives by seeking more deeply the Risen Lord – seek to know Him more intimately in the Gospel accounts, seek to know Him more faithfully in the Sacraments, seek to know him more lovingly in prayer, and thereby, discover the most profound love story of all time – Christ is born, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Meredith +