Dear St. John's Community,
Today is the Feast Day of Julian of Norwich (ca. 1342-1416). She is a good saint to remember at a time like right now.
As a young girl in the English city of Norwich she lived through the "Black Death" that killed perhaps 50 million people or more.
At the age of 30, Julian herself got very sick and almost died. At the moment when the priest was giving her last rites, she had a series of powerful visions, which she called "shewings." When she completely recovered, she wrote these down, and later wrote theological reflections on what she saw. This remarkable work is called
Revelations of Divine Love, and it is still studied today. It's believed to be the earliest existing book in English by a woman author.
An example of what she wrote is described by Ja
mes Kiefer:
"She [saw] God holding a tiny thing in his hand, like a small brown nut, which seemed so fragile and insignificant that she wondered why it did not crumble before her eyes. She understood that the thing was the entire created universe, which is as nothing compared to its Creator, and she was told, 'God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.'"
Her most famous words are,
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
To learn a little more about Julian, you can read Kiefer's very short biography of her
here. It is comforting and inspiring to reach back and remember a life like hers and the vision she had of God's love for us all.
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In case you have not yet seen this, here is the
letter from the bishops giving us the beginning of guidelines for reopening all our churches. As I have stated earlier, this will be a marathon, not a sprint. I appreciate very much the way this community has held together so beautifully during this unusual time.
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