Christian Mysticism · 1342–≈1416
Julian of Norwich
English mystic · anchoress · Revelations of Divine Love
The first woman to write a book in English. Her message is simple and unconquerable: at the ground of everything is love.
The essence of the teaching: Love is the meaning and the ground of all that is. Out of love we are made, and by love we are held. Even sin and pain are woven into a design where, in the end, all shall be well.
Transmission
Julian was an anchoress: she lived in a cell beside a church, to whose window people came for a word of comfort. In her visions the whole created world was shown to her – the size of a hazelnut in the palm of her hand. And she marveled that it held together at all, so small and so fragile. The answer was: it holds together because God loves it. All that is has its being through the love of God. To her was given, too, the most beloved promise of mysticism: "all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." Not because there will be no pain, but because love embraces both pain and sin, and tenderly leads all things to the good.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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