“All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of thing Shall Be Well”.

Today is the feast of Julian of Norwich, the saint whose writings hit my heart as heavily as Meister Ekhart’s hits my head. If you are looking for the good in Christianity, looking for a genuine message of love and peace about a god who is Omnibenevolent, this is the place to start.

We know so little about St Julian that we don’t even know here real name: Julian is the name of the Church that she was an Anchorite, a woman who was walled into a cell in the Church, with only a small window to the outside and another facing inside to the church . In 1373 she became deathly ill and received last rites. She was literally staring up into heaven when a curate brought her a painted cross and asked her to look at it. The Cross began to bleed, and soon her visions started.

These 16 visions, she she called “Showings”, depict a god who loves mankind, all of mankind, not just professed Christians. In fact these visions of love led her to struggle with the Churches teachings on sin, because while she could perceive sin, she could not perceive God’s anger over it: “It was the more surprising that I should see the Lord God regard us with no more blame than if we had been as pure and holy as his angels in heaven.” 

While she does not outright declare a doctrine of universal salvation, which no doubt would have exhausted the tolerance of the 14th century Church, the breadcrumbs to lead you to that conclusion are all there. This liberal view of Gods love, as well as her referring to god in feminine terms, could have easily gotten her excommunicated or worse “Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.” It was only her status as an Anchorite, and the fact that her theology could be dismissed because she was a woman, that she was able to get away with it.

In answer to her questions about why God allows sin she receives the following answer, which is probably the most famous quote from her Showings of Love: ““Sin has its place – but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”.

She struggles her whole life between what Christ showed her directly and what the Church teaches, and on the rare occasion that she does write about condemnation to hell she clarifies that it is what the Church teaches, and not necessarily what has been revealed to her: “all these shall be condemned to hell without end, as Holy Church teacheth me to believe. And all this [so] standing, methought it was impossible that all manner of things should be well, as our Lord shewed in the same time.” Why does she go out of her way to throw in a nod to what the Church teaches and that she accepts it? She is a woman in the 14th Century. To do otherwise would be counterproductive and self-destructive. When reading the mystics you have to read between the lines.

A Practice

There are lots of practices and meditations that people have derived from the Showings of St Julian. My favorite is a simple breath meditation I received while meditating on her words at a small Episcopal Church in Killington VT.

Begin with a short prayer from her:

“God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.”

Inhale deeply through the nose using a vase breath and and think that this breath is itself a prayer which says “All Shall Be Well”

Hold the breath in for a few moments, dont close off your nose like you are under water, simply let the breath hang in your lungs and think “And All Shall Be Well”.

Exhale the breath through the nose for an even longer time than you inhaled and think “And All Manner Of Thing Shall Be Well”.

End the practice with a simple “Amen”. 

This manner of linking the breath to mantra or prayer is very common and exists in many religions. Hindu Yogi’s that breathe the words “Ham Sa”. Tibetan Naljorpas who link the breath to “Om Ah Hum“. Eastern Orthodox practitioners who link the breath to “Kírie Isú Christé, Ié tu Theú, eléison me, ton amartolón” or “Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner”. 

If you have any inclination to the Christian tradition at all, I urge you to take a few moments today reflect on divine love, read a little bit about Julian of Norwich (there is plenty online), and perhaps to do this practice while reflecting on what you have learned.

Be Well.