Pray Like a Saint: Julian of Norwich

Out of longing to experience my life as prayer, I’ve spent the past few months conversing with Julian of Norwich. As Julian lived on this earth somewhere around 1343-1416, you can assume the conversations have been purely imaginative. I find these creative wanderings with mystics of old a form of prayer much more compelling than my usual list of intercessions. This communion with saints speaks to my here and now in ways that transcend logic and energize and expand my prayer life. Let me introduce you to Julian of Norwich, to her much-needed message, and to what it looks like to pray like a saint.

We know very little about Julian. Our primary source of information about her is her Revelations of Divine Love. In this two-part text, Julian recounts the life altering mystic visions that she experienced at age 30—visions of Christ’s bodily suffering, his wounds, and his death. These visions came to Julian when she was so ill that her priest came to offer last rites. Gazing at the crucifix held in the priest’s hand initiated a series of mystic visions of Christ, 15 in succession and an encore 16th. She made a full and surprising recovery from her illness and swiftly recorded her visions in what is now known as the Short Text.

Twenty years later, she offered theological insights gleaned from these visions in the Long Text. During those 20 years in between the Short and Long Texts, Julian lived as an anchoress in the English city of Norwich. She spent her days in prayer, contemplating spiritual realities, watching her cat chase the mice in her cell, and listening to the inquiries of those who saught her spiritual insight.

Julian’s era was a tumultuous one. The Bubonic Plague, a bacterial infection spread by bites from infected fleas, took one-third of England’s population. Deaths from the plague led toa shortage of workers who revolted in protest of low wages. The religious establishment was in upheaval with John Wycliffe leading the Lollards in rebellion against the Church. Imagine it! Disease and death. Economic upheaval. Religious factions. Suffering all around. It sounds so much like the world in which we live here in the 21st Century. Little felt stable, prosperous, or hopeful. Little joy was evident on the horizon.

Yet, in my imagination, I see Julian engaged in a simple life in her small cell with a singular message that she eagerly offered via her writing and to those who visited her for spiritual counsel. And the message? “You are loved!” I can hear her shout in delight. “You are loved!” And because of that love she insists, “All will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” She is sweeping the dust off her cell floor. She is taking in the smells of fresh baked bread. She is petting the cat on her lap as she journals recollections of the divine love revealed to her 20 years earlier. This message of love became the lens through which she viewed life. “Look at this little round thing held in your hand,” invites Julian, “it’s about the size of a hazelnut. Why does it exist? How does it exist? It exists because God loves it.” All of life is created and sustained by a great love, a love that doesn’t eradicate suffering but insists on being present through it. Julian says it this way, “If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.” In falling and rising again, we are kept in precious love. Let your imagination run with that thought!

Julian’s tumultuous world was saturated with a message from the Church, a Church steeped in its interpretation of Augustine’s description of sin. The Church named human sin as the culprit for the menacing Bubonic Plague. As is so often the pattern of the Church, people in need of healing found accusation instead. Julian speaks to this accusation insisting that her visions revealed a very different perspective. She offers a story of a man eagerly walking in the direction he understands to be good and right but despite his efforts falls into a pit. A compassionate, motherly, divine kindness reaches out to him and eagerly pulls him up from his stuckness. This is how Julian understands God’s relationship with humankind—one of compassionate, gracious, mother-energy that longs for connection and communion. No hellfire and damnation here. But no deconstructionist sentiments either. Julian offers her vision of love to her Church and asks that it assess her experience, that it confirm her visions were truly from God. She was able to work within the structure of the Church while expressing a contrary message. It took a while, but that Church now honors Julian as a Doctor of the Church, one whose contribution to Church doctrine and theology is worthy of honor.

And so, when I asked Julian what I most needed to know about a life of prayer, I heard this. “Pray like you are loved.” Pray like you are loved—loved by a tender-hearted Kindness that longs to hear what you have to say, that eagerly draws you in despite the suffering all around, love that is generated and expanded by deep trust. Julian said it something like this,

"Prayer is comprised of a right understanding that the fullness of joy is our birthright, along with intense yearning and unshakable trust. When we engage in prayer, the lack of the bliss we were born to experience fills our souls with longing. True understanding and love, driven by sweet recollection of our Savior, give us the grace to trust in God."

Life these days certainly seems eager to affirm that “the lack of bliss we were born to experience fills our souls with longing.” We long for a better world. We pray for a better world. In this longing and amid suffering, we’re invited to pray like saints—like those who know that we are deeply loved, held by a compassionate kindness that will not let us go.

Practice
I invite you to take a few moments for practice. Settle in, take a few conscious breaths, and invite yourself to imagine a conversation with Julian. Note what Julian is wearing, where you are sitting while you converse with her. What sights, sounds, smells, and tastes come into your awareness? And pause. Breathe. What do you hear Julian saying about the suffering you are experiencing? About the suffering of the world around you? How does your body shift when you hear her words, “All will be well”? Does anyone else show up for you in this conversation? What is that like? Pause. And breathe. And hear Julian remind you, “You are loved because God made you. You are sustained by Love.” Invite Julian and her message to walk with you through this day. This is one of the many ways you can Pray Like a Saint.