JULIAN OF NORWICH: A UNIVERSAL MYSTIC
God Dwells in All
Friday, May 15, 2026
Matthew Fox traces the universal nature of Julian’s message of mystical hope and divine love:
Julian makes explicit on many occasions that she is speaking to a very broad audience—one that includes those of us who live 650 years later. It follows, then, that we recognize that sense of inclusion. “In God’s sight, all humanity is one person, and all people are a single humanity.”… [1] For Julian, the traditional teaching of the church as the mystical body of Christ is extended to the entire human race….
When she celebrates the beauty of being human, she again makes explicit that she is talking about all and not some sectarian group. “God made us so rich and noble in our essence that all we can do is strive to enact his will and honor him in all things. When I say ‘we,’ I mean all true spiritual seekers.” [2] When she says “all,” she means all. This would include, in our time, all versions of Christians and all Jews, all Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Muslims, goddess worshippers, those of indigenous religions, and those of no religions, whether agnostic or atheist. That is how ecumenical she is—and in the fourteenth century, no less.
When speaking of retreating “into our own souls, which is where our Beloved dwells,” she again speaks out about the universality that encompasses our spiritual search: “Let no man or woman think this truth applies personally to the individual. It does not; it is universal. This beautiful human nature of ours was prepared for our precious Mother Christ.” [3]
Through contemplating her visions over many years, Julian recognized that God’s love wasn’t only for her but for all creation:
In explaining how she came to write her book, she confesses that she first saw [her visions] as a personal thing, but then she came to understand that they applied to humanity as a whole. “At first, I applied this teaching to my individual self, because at the time I was not moved to see it otherwise. But the great and gracious comfort that followed made me realize that God meant this insight for the whole of humanity.” [4] She learned that her work ought to reach a broad audience, “I made the mistake of privatizing this showing instead of taking it to mean loving my fellow Christians better. What could make me love my fellow Christians better than to see that God loves us all as we are all one soul?” [5] …
Such a sense of universality translates into action, for “those who have universal love for all their fellow Christians in God have love towards everything that exists. For in us all is comprehended all, that is, all that is created and the Creator of all.” [6] Creation and cosmos belong to everyone—and no one—and it call us to a larger consciousness of expanded love.
References:
[1] Julian of Norwich, The Showings: Uncovering the Face of the Feminine in Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Mirabai Starr (Hampton Roads, 2022), 133. Selection from chap. 51.
[2] Julian, Showings, 157. Selection from chap. 57.
[3] Julian, Showings, 172. Selection from chap. 62.
[4] Julian, Showings, 212. Selection from chap. 79.
[5] Brendan Doyle, Meditations with Julian of Norwich (Bear & Co., 1983), 64.
[6] Doyle, Meditations, 33.
Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond (iUniverse: 2020), xxxii–xxxiii.
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Jesus Calling – Sarah Young
I AM the Gift that continuously gives — bounteously, with no strings attached. Unconditional Love is such a radical concept that even My most devoted followers fail to grasp it fully. Absolutely nothing in heaven or on earth can cause Me to stop loving you. You may feel more loved when you are performing according to your expectations. But My Love for you is perfect; therefore, it is not subject to variation. What does vary is your awareness of My loving Presence.
When you are dissatisfied with your behavior, you tend to feel unworthy of My Love. You may unconsciously punish yourself by withdrawing from Me and attributing the distance between us to My displeasure. Instead of returning to Me and receiving My Love, you attempt to earn My approval by trying harder. All the while, I am aching to hold you in My everlasting arms, to enfold you in My Love. When you are feeling unworthy or unloved, come to Me. Then ask for receptivity to My unfailing Love.
RELATED SCRIPTURE:
1st John 4:15-18 (NLT)
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
Deuteronomy 33:27 (NLT)
Psalm 13:5 (NLT)
5 But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
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John Chaffee – Five on Friday
1.
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or they won’t exist at all.”
– Karl Rahner, German Jesuit Priest
Drop the theo-logic.
Drop the religious tribalism.
Drop the spiritual pride and the moral elitism.
God is not found in any of those things.
Nor is God coerced or impressed by any of those things.
I am convinced that we all have a deep itch and a desire for true transcendence. However, in pursuit of it, we become more seduced by describing transcendence, dictating who gets to experience it, or trying to manufacture an experience of transcendence.
Let’s be honest, we are all just looking for a life-changing experience of the Divine.
For me, that Divine Presence is truly found in the Blessed Trinity, which invites the whole of everything to join in its Cosmic Dance.
The problem is that people go to church, and we teach them to become members but not mystics. We invite people to open their hymnals but not open their eyes and see that God-is-in-All-Things and All-Things-are-in-God.
I hope I am not coming across as cynical; I do not mean to do so if I am. All I want to say is that I hope Christianity can reclaim some of its own contemplative and mystical dimensions. Unless we reclaim those roots, Christianity in the West will continue to be a cute country club with which to convince ourselves and others that we are good people. I believe it is so much more than that. I sincerely believe it is a true expression of devotion to the infinite mystery we call God, revealed in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
2.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
– Brene Brown, Researcher and Author
It feels as though a fair amount of energy is spent in our lives just trying to avoid vulnerability.
The problem is that it is exhausting to even try to do that for any duration of time.
There was a whole season of my life when I utterly failed to connect with people, and looking back, I see that is because I primarily did not know how to be vulnerable with myself.
Once I opened that door, or learned that skillset to a sufficient degree, I found the quality of my time and conversations with other people changed dramatically…
Why?
Being closed off tells other people they should be closed off, but being vulnerable invites people to drop their guard and risk being vulnerable themselves.
3.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Man, that’s a good one.
Here we are, all looking for love.
And yet, the most important thing may not be to look for love, but to remove all the ways in which we are stopped up within ourselves from receiving it from where it is already coming.
4.
“If a church never gets into conflict with the ruling powers, it should question whether it is a church of Jesus Christ.”
– Jon Sobrino, Spanish Priest and Theologian
This coming Sunday, I will be giving a guest sermon at a local church I have known for at least a decade. It is a lovely little church just about an hour outside of Philly.
I am looking forward to preaching, not merely because I will see familiar faces, but because the text assigned to me is Isaiah 14:1-20. Since I had never preached on that topic before, I felt as though it would be a unique challenge.
The passage is interesting on the surface because it is often attributed to the downfall of Satan. The passage describes how Satan will be overthrown due to his oppressive stance towards the faithful and his spiritual pride.
HOWEVER,
The passage, in context, is actually about the King of Babylon. In fact, Isaiah 14:3-4 says, “On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon.”
It is supposed to be a taunt of the king of Babylon!
God does not suffer tyrants and oppressors for long. They, too, will have their day.
So, when I came upon the quote above from Jon Sobrino, it resonated with what I was learning myself about the context of Isaiah 14!
5.
“Believe me, don’t wait until tomorrow to begin becoming a saint. The time is NOW!”
– Therese of Lisieux, French Catholic Mystic
I am not my best self. Not by a long shot.
Of course, I have better days than others, but that is frighteningly affected by how good a night’s sleep I have had or whether or not people treat me the way I want to be treated.
For about a week now, I have been reading The Story of a Soul, the spiritual autobiography of Therese of Lisieux. At times, it is a bit saccharine and easy to skim, but there are many pieces within it that completely grab my attention, so I grab my highlighter.
Therese’s life was cut short in her mid-20s because of Tuberculosis. She suffered greatly and knew that she would likely die an early death because of the amount of blood she would cough up.
As a result, she knew that time was a finite resource.
The stakes are high; the world desperately needs both you and me to become the best, healthiest, and holiest versions of ourselves. Time waits for no one, and as a result, it benefits us and those around us to do what we can to become saints as soon as possible.
Let us give up our vices, our sarcasm, our despair, our scarcity mindset, our need for approval, etc., and finally and freely embrace lives that live in the Light (as He is in the Light).
