Two Norfolk girls or, to be correct, two Norfolk ladies who had mystical, supernatural experiences that, for short, we call visions. There is nothing new in that. 200 years before Christ God spoke through the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28). The Lady Richeldis of Walsingham had her visions in 1066 and Lady Julian of Norwich received hers in 1373. We celebrate the month of May as a time of special devotion to Mary and the feast of St Julian is celebrated on 8th May. The calendar brings together these two saints of God.
The Walsingham Shrine soon became one of the most famous places of Christian pilgrimage in Europe so Julian would certainly have known about it but there isno record of her visiting on pilgrimage. That’s not surprising because Julian spent at least 20 years of her adult life living as a recluse, or hermit, in a cell attached to St Julian’s Church in Norwich. A cell with a window open to the church so that she could pray, worship and make her Communion and another window open to the street outside so that she could listen to, give counsel and pray for her world.
In 1373 Julian produced her still famous and inspiring book, Revelations of Divine Love. It made her, as far as we know, the first woman to write a book in English and is based on her visions of God. God revealed himself to Julian as the God whose whole being and activity is love, a God overflowing in mercy towards us.
The Anglican nun, Benedicta Ward, in her writings on Julian argues convincingly that Julian had been married and widowed before she became a recluse.* Julian’s Revelations show a theology and spirituality earthed in Julian’s own experience of life, faith and suffering and shows us that God is far from being remote. Rather, God revealed his “homeliness” by becoming one of us in His birth at Bethlehem. Julian so develops this intimate, relational picture of God that she refers to God as our “Mother” and sees God as such in three ways:
He is our Mother because He created us
He is our Mother because He saved us
He is our Mother because He constantly cares for us
It is these three ways, says Julian, that we know and experience God’s love.
Years ago I counselled a faithful Christian man who had been abused by his violent father when he was a child and, as a result, found it very difficult to relate to God as “Father” in prayer and worship. I remembered Julian’s teaching and suggested that this man might refer to God as “Mother” rather than “Father” in his prayers. A suggestion he found helpful in his walk of faith. God is not limited to our pictures and definitions.
May celebrates Mary the mother of Jesus and I hope that, during May, people will stop and pray and listen before our wonderful icon of Mary, entitled The Joy of all who Sorrow. Julian writes: “Herein I saw in part the compassion of Our Lady Saint Mary; for Christ and she were so oned in love that the greatness of her love was the cause of the greatness of her pain”. Like Mary, says Julian, the faithful Christian will share in Our Lord’s pain for the world and its people. We are called to be “oned” with Our Lord in our love and prayer and so share in his vocation of love and service. Painful and costly at times but with Mary and Julian we look forward to heaven where fear and faith, hope and pain will be untied in what Julian calls the “homeliness of God”.
I invite you to join me and give yourself time to think on these things on the parish pilgrimage to Walsingham this year from 4th to 6th July 2025. Perhaps next year we might make it a joint pilgrimage to Our Lady’s shine in Walsingham and St Julian’s shrine in Norwich and taste something of their “homeliness” in God.
+Michael