{"id":26972,"date":"2026-05-14T09:44:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26972"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:46:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:46:54","slug":"julian-of-norwich-a-universal-mystic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26972","title":{"rendered":"Julian of Norwich &#8211; A Universal Mystic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bethel Music - Goodness of God (Live) (Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DHUjlSdanYk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Goodness of God<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Essential Joy<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Thursday, May 14, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Julian of Norwich is without a doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices<s>.<br><\/s>\u2014Thomas Merton,&nbsp;<em>Seeds of Destruction<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Gloria Durka explores Thomas Merton\u2019s love of Julian\u2019s positive theology:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learning to remain hopeful amidst the darkness of suffering is a struggle in which all of us become engaged from time to time\u2014and it can be a bitter trial. The optimism of Julian can help us as it did Thomas Merton. In his book&nbsp;<em>Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander<\/em>, Merton wrote the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I pray much to have a wise heart, and perhaps the rediscovery of <strong>Lady Julian of Norwich<\/strong> will help me. I took her book with me on a quiet walk among the cedars. She is a true theologian\u2026. She <strong>first experienced, then thought, and the thoughtful deepening of experience worked it back into her life, deeper and deeper, until her whole life as a recluse at Norwich was simply a matter of getting completely saturated in the light she had received all at once\u2026.<\/strong> Her life was lived in the belief in this \u201csecret,\u201d the \u201cgreat deed\u201d that the Lord will do on the Last Day, not a deed of destruction and revenge, but of mercy and of life, all partial expectations will be exploded and&nbsp;<em>everything<\/em>&nbsp;will be made right\u2026. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Julian\u2019s writings are permeated with Christian hope. She experienced all of the aspects of hope in her own spiritual life: the rocklike dependability of God, the God who is always near, the God of the impossible, the God who is Father and Mother to us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Julian was especially aware of the joyful character of hope\u2026. Human joy is essential to Julian\u2019s spirituality. To her, <strong>we are meant to be full of joy because our joy in God reflects the joy of the Trinity. Creation is an act of God\u2019s joy. The more faithfully and hopefully we respond to God\u2019s love in our life, the greater will be the fullness of our joy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was Julian ever more relevant? Her message of hope surely lightened the spirits of many in her troubled age. We probably need her message at least as much today. The threat of nuclear holocaust, the possibility of extinguishing all life forms on the planet earth, and deadly violence between warring peoples are daily reminders of the cloud of despair that hovers above us. <strong>Great faith and hope are required in order to penetrate the gloom caused by shattering events\u2026. We need great faith and hope to see beyond the darkness of our personal life\u2014our failures, weaknesses, and fears.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But gloom, fear, and anxiety are only one side of reality. The other side is that we are an Easter people. Even though suffering is real, the life, Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus have won for each of us the assurance that death is conquered\u2026. Alleluia! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Young &#8211; Jesus Calling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>I am with you and for you. You face nothing alone&#8211;nothing! <\/strong>When you feel anxious, know that you are focusing on the visible world and leaving Me out of the picture. The remedy is simple: Fix your eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. Verbalize your trust in Me, the Living One who sees you always. <strong>I will get you safely through this day and all your days. But you can find Me only in the present. Each day is a precious gift<\/strong> from My Father. How ridiculous to grasp for future gifts when today&#8217;s is set before you! <strong>Receive today&#8217;s gift gratefully, unwrapping it tenderly and delving into its depths. As you savor this gift, you find Me.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RELATED SCRIPTURE:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Romans 8:31 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nothing Can Separate Us from God\u2019s Love<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2nd Corinthians 4:18 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>18 So we don\u2019t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Genesis 16:13-14<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, \u201cYou are the God who sees me.\u201d[a] She also said, \u201cHave I truly seen the One who sees me?\u201d 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means \u201cwell of the Living One who sees me\u201d). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Goodness of God Essential Joy Thursday, May 14, 2026 Julian of Norwich is without a doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices.\u2014Thomas Merton,&nbsp;Seeds of Destruction Dr. Gloria Durka explores Thomas Merton\u2019s love of Julian\u2019s positive theology: Learning to remain hopeful amidst the darkness of suffering is a struggle in which all of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26972"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26985,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26972\/revisions\/26985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}