Spirituality

Ruth Dillon, a retired Minister who brought ministry to our church for some years, selected some reading on Spirituality to enable everyone to better understand how others have engaged with this and for us to explore a meaning we recognise and can develop in our lives.

Julian of Norwich ( 1342 -1400Approx). She was a Benedictine nun, and an Anchoress, and we know little about her life.      

Julian would have had three windows in her cell or anchorage. The window called the Squint was to open into the church so that the anchoress could receive communion and follow the church services. The second window provided access to her attendant who would deliever food and remove and waste. The third window provided visitors with the means to talk to Julian asking for her advice and prayers .

All Julian had in her cell was a crucifix, a hard bed and a small alter. Her clothes would have been plain consisting of a kirtle with a mantle, black head dress, wimple cape or veil.

Being an anchoress meant she would be incarcerated for life

In 1373 she became seriously ill and received 16 ‘Shewings’ or visions of our Lord. For twenty years Julian meditated on these visions, and recorded them and their meanings in ‘The Revelations of Divine Love’ .

She insisted that God is all loving and was convinced that ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well ‘

God is over all

The Trinity is God and God is the Trinity.

The Trinity is our maker and keeper.

The Trinity is our everlasting lover, our joy and our bliss through our Lord Jesus Christ

Lord you know what I desire,

But I desire it only if it is your will that I should have it.

If it is not your will, good Lord

do not be displeased,

for my will is to do your will.

I desired to suffer with him

He is our clothing.

In his love he wraps and holds us.

He enfolds us for love and he will never let us go.

I saw that he is to us everything that is good.

He keeps all that is made

He showed me a little thing,

the size of a hazelnut,

in the palm of my hand,

and it was as round as a ball.

I looked at it with my minds eye

and I thought ‘What can this be?’

and answer came, ‘It is all that is made’.

I marvelled that it could last,

for I thought it might have crumbled to nothing,

it was so small.

And the answer came into my mind

‘It lasts and ever shall because God loves it.

And all things have being through the love of God’.

In this little thing I saw three truths.

The first is that God made it.

The second is that God loves it.

The third is that God looks after it.

What is he indeed that is maker and lover and keeper?

I cannot find words to tell,

for until I am one with him

I can never have true rest or peace.

I can never know it until I am held so close to him

that there is nothing in between.