December 6, 2000
“. . . our blessed Lord . . . showing me that the greatest wrong ever done was Adam’s sin . . . The meaning of our blessed Lord was this, ‘Since I have now made the greatest wrong good, I want you to know by this that I shall make good all wrongs of whatever degree.'” (Julian of Norwich)
November 29, 2000
“God showed me too the pleasure it gives him when a simple soul comes to him, openly, sincerely and genuinely.” (Julian of Norwich)
November 29, 2000
“The will of God is that we should know he keeps us safely, alike in ‘weal or woe.’ . . . Both are equally his love.” (Julian of Norwich)
“The highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God . . . . God only desires that our soul cling to him with all of its strength, in particular, that it clings to his goodness. For of all the things our minds can think about God, it is thinking upon his goodness that pleases him more and brings the most profit to our soul.” (Julian of Norwich)
“And I saw that truly nothing happens by accident or luck, but everything by God’s wise providence. If it seems to be accident or luck from our point of view, our blindness and lack of foreknowledge is the cause; for matters that have been in God’s foreseeing wisdom since before time began befall us suddenly, all unawares; and so in our blindness and ignorance we say that this is accident or luck, but to our Lord God it is not so.”
― Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
“If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.”
― Julian of Norwich
“Our gracious Lord does not wish His servants to despair
because of frequent or grievous falling,
because our falling does not prevent Him from loving us.”
(Julian of Norwich)
Isn’t this the Good News?
“Sometimes it seems that we have been praying for a long time and still do not have what we ask. But we should not be sad. I am sure that what our Lord means is that either we should wait for a better time, or more grace, or a better gift.” (Bl. Julian of Norwich)
“I wonder whether we take seriously enough, we grown men and women, the stress that Jesus puts on being a child in order to receive what God has to give? It means God can come fully only to the little one. It means renouncing all ideas of our own spiritual importance, of what we do for God, what we give to God, our own supposed goodness and virtue. It means casting aside any concern for that image of ourselves, so precious to ourselves, that we are indeed truly spiritual men and women. Julian of Norwich maintains that, in this life, we can have no other stature than that of childhood. I think that when Jesus takes the child in his arms, sets him in front of himself, pointing to him as a model, it is to himself he is pointing. His inmost heart was always that of a child and that is hwy he could live with such freedom, courage and self-squandering. To my mind this is the nub of the truly Christian faith, this grasp that all is gift and our work is simply to receive, to learn how to receive. Certainly, when I myself get the spiritual ‘fidgets’ and become anxious about myself and my life, I find my answer in simply saying to myself: ‘You are only a child!'” (Ruth Burrows)
Witnesses to Hope 