God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.

“God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.” 

What do you know about Julian of Norwich? Before seminary, most of what I knew about her was what I’d learned in a thumbnail sketch in an undergraduate English literature class. This was an author’s note provided alongside an excerpt from her work Revelations of Divine Love, which is the earliest surviving English-language work written by a woman. From my experience in the class I remembered very little, and associated her with hazelnuts, cats, and anchoritism, but throughout my journey to priesthood her name became a constant. She and her writings were mentioned again and again by many people I respected and admired for their faithfulness, sort of everyday spiritual heroes. She even has an Anglican religious order named for her.

As for the woman herself, there is very little verifiable information available about her. We know she lived in the city of Norwich circa 1340-1415, and that it was one of the most important cities in England at that time, second only to London. During the time she would have lived, Norwich lost half of its population to repeated outbreaks of the Black Death, and was overwhelmed by rebels during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

We know nothing about her family, or any education she received, and we do not know the date or year of her birth or death. We aren’t even sure if her name was Julian, as she wrote anonymously. We do know she was an anchoress, living most of her adult life in a small cell built into the walls of a church called St. Julian’s. She might have been called by the name of her home, where she lived in a small room with a few windows to watch the mass and receive pilgrims. Many came to her seeking spiritual counsel, because of her reputation as a wise and faithful Christian. One of these visitors was her fellow English mystic Margery Kempe, and the few historic records we have of her life are in the writings of Kempe and four bequests made to her in the wills of some of her other visitors.

Revelations of Divine Love  is her only existing work (along with an expanded version suitably called the Long Text), and it is a recounting of holy visions she had around age 30, which she termed “showings.” She experienced them during a near death experience, part of a miraculous recovery from a deadly illness. She spent the rest of her life contemplating the visions of God’s empathy and compassion demonstrated through Christ’s Passion she had seen during those hours in the borderlands between life and death. 

Throughout her visions a steady constant was her understanding of God as being motivated by love for all God had created. As part of one of these showings she encounters God holding a small brown hazelnut, and understands that it contains the whole of existence, cradled in the loving palm of its Creator. In that moment she understood the eternal and all-consuming love of God for Creation, and heard a voice explain “God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.”  

Like many Christians over the centuries, she was troubled by the fate of the souls of those who died without any chance to hear the Gospel. It distressed her that they might be prevented from entering Heaven because of ignorance that they had no control over. She prayed about this, and though she never received a direct answer to her questions, she was told that whatever God does is done in Love, and therefore in this and other spiritual riddles “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”  

Julian’s conception of sin reads as a very modern one, particularly for someone writing in the 1300s. Speaking of her visions of heaven and hell, she said, “To me was shown no harder hell than sin.” This showing made clear to her that sin is all of us, humanity, creating distance between ourselves and God by our mistreatment and abuse of each other, rather than being punished by God for the times we fall short of loving our neighbor as ourselves. “Thus I was taught that Love was our Lord’s meaning, Julian wrote of this, “and I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made us, he loved us which love was never slaked nor ever shall be.” What wondrous love it is, for God to liberate us from the prisons we build for ourselves.

As you commemorate Julian of Norwich today, you might share a bit of her biography with your household and wonder aloud about the connections between her life and your own. Here are some questions to get your discussion started.

• Julian didn’t get answers to all of her questions, but she heard that “all shall be well.” Have you ever had a question about God or life that didn’t get answered right away? How do you feel about trusting that God’s love is still at work?
• Julian’s visions showed God as full of love, not punishment. When you imagine God, what do you think of? Does anything from Julian’s story change that picture for you?
• Julian said the hardest part of hell is sin itself—when we hurt each other or feel far from God. Can you think of a time when someone hurt you, or when you hurt someone else? What helps make things right again?
• Even in the middle of hard times like the Black Death and war, Julian believed in hope. What helps you feel hopeful when things are scary or hard? How can we help each other remember that “all shall be well”?