Wisdom from Julian of Norwich

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Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
DFMS Noonday Prayer, via Zoom
Julian of Norwich, May 8, 2020


May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ah, it is the feast day of Julian of Norwich. For me, it feels like a day when I get to visit with an old friend. Julian is one of the five thinkers about whom I wrote in my doctoral dissertation. So, she is indeed an old friend who just about lived with me for years!

Given how much I value her wisdom and insight, I could probably come up with reasons why her message was relevant any day of the year. And yet she has some particularly important messages for us as the Church living through a pandemic in 2020. Just in case you don’t know much about the life or times of Julian, let me give you a brief synopsis.

Her name “Julian” is taken from St. Julian's Church in Norwich where she lived as an anchorite for many years. An anchorite is someone who lives a solitary existence in a cell attached to a church. They have a window into the Church to watch mass being celebrated and a window through which they can serve as a counselor to the people of the world, but they do not generally leave their cell. She lived like that for decades! I bet she could offer some practical wisdom to those of us who are struggling with being stuck at home for weeks.

Julian was born in the late 1300s and died in the mid 1400s. She lived through the Black Death, a plague that came multiple times in the 14th century and took approximately 40% of the population. Hear that again - 40% of the population. She would be marveling at all the advances of modern medicine and how many people are surviving and recovering from the virus. Currently the mortality rate for COVID-19 worldwide is about 7%.

Julian is famous for her writings. It was a rare thing in the 1400s for a woman to be able to read and write, but Julian was definitely a scholar who knew her Scripture and the theology of her day well. She had a series of visions during an illness which she then spent many years reflecting on and writing about. Her writings are collected in a text known as Revelations of Divine Love.

If she is known in popular culture at all, she is known for her saying, “All will be well. All will be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” Taken out of context this can seem like a pollyanna statement that seems to completely disregard the realities of the present moment. But Julian was not oblivious to the realities of pain and suffering. She knew them well in her own life, and in the lives of the people who came to her for counsel and advice.

Julian lived in a time where “death was to be met any day, around any corner.” The fragility and sacredness of life was a truth she knew all too well. Suffering and hardship were an expected part of daily life. Her conviction that all will be well is a deeply meaningful one, precisely because it is a statement of deep faith and hope born out of a daily life where things rarely went "well.” It is a statement that believes there is more to life than what we can see in the present moment. It is a belief that tomorrow can and will be different than today. It is a belief that there is always the possibility of more, the possibility for new life, for transformation, even in the midst of our darkest moments.

So I hope you hear Julian’s conviction and affirmation that “All will be well” in a new way today. It is not a platitude meant to paper over the trauma of the present moment. It is a deeply faithful statement that expresses the conviction that God is with us, that God’s transforming love is at work in the midst of whatever challenges and hardship we might be facing. All may not be well yet. It may not be well today or even seem well tomorrow or next week. And yet, we can join with Julian in affirming that “All will be well” in God’s time. Amen.