I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Lori DiPrete Brown’s reflection Hope through Uncertainty: Reflections Drawing on the Writings of Julian of Norwich.
The writings of Julian of Norwich, a cloistered contemplative who lived in14th Century England, recount her mystical experiences and speak about the nature of God and the soul. Julian lived in times of plague, war and social strife, yet she offers a spirituality of hopeful, tender co-creation. In February and March of 2024 I undertook 30 days of reflection on Julian’s writings which included daily reading, contemplation, writing and illustration. Here I share five of the journal entries, with the hope that readers will be inspired to try this practice, and that together our attentions and reflections can enlarge the mystical circle of creativity, wisdom, contemplation, care and love.
The Hazelnut
“I looked at a hazelnut in the palm of my hand and saw with the eye of understanding that God made it, God loves it, and God keeps it.” (Ch. 5, pp. 8-9)
The hazelnut is the little thing that Julian of Norwich is famous for. It’s my first day of reflection and as I take in the words, I am tempted to move quickly past it, eager for something new, restless for tomorrow. But when I draw the seed in my own hand – I begin to understand that the metaphor that the whole world is in the hazelnut is a beautiful literal statement too. It’s about life, science, the seed that can regenerate a whole tree. It can survive and evolve over millennia – and it can survive dormancy for a long time too. The hazelnut gives me hope and shows what a kind of teacher Julian is. She wants to take us beyond words, sacred images, and the metaphors themselves – from something, through nothing, to God. But she “mystics gently” as we begin the journey. She lets us have a small, small thing to hold.
Hands
“See that I am all things. See that I do all things. See that I never lift my hands from my work, nor shall ever without end.” (Ch.11, p. 20)
Throughout her writings Julian asserts that God has a plan, that God is pleased with all creation, and that all creation is good. It’s a bold and challenging statement of original blessing, and I find myself saying, “but wait”, “but look”, “but that”, “but why?” Yet the wise mystic knew suffering also – her writings speak of dried blood, dead grey skin, life languishing away slowly – she had clear and visceral knowledge of dead bodies, violent death, and the ravages of disease. I look for something to hold onto here and find two lines that, despite other misgivings, I can believe. According to Julian, God says “Behold, I never withdraw my arms from my work.” So perhaps this is the only plan for humanity that there can be. Continual work, care and comfort. Our hands beside God’s, never letting go, never giving up.
Peace is All
“I saw no anger in God, not even for a moment. I saw with certainty that peace is all, and wrath has no place.” (Ch 49 p. 66)
How do words like peace, safety and blessing take living form? Not light, darkness, water, or fire. These elements already have their places in the metaphorical landscape — and they are capable of much —but that capacity is for both creation and destruction – not a steady undisturbed peace that is never moved to anger. A peace where even justified anger is censured and called on to manifest in tenderness. What if the just rage that I allow myself, is not a necessary step toward peace? How do make it melt and rain away before it forms? Today I am visited by the image of gentle green reeds that rustle in a soft breeze. There can be low music, a quiet chime, as we plant ourselves and reach.
A Marvelous Confusion
“Throughout our lives we are steadfastly kept is a marvelous confusion of weal and woe. Out of kind goodness God opens the eye of our understanding. Sometimes more, sometimes less.” (Ch. 52, p. 77)
Life is a marvelous confusion of ups and downs. We wait for the sky to clear, for a steady state of joy and contentment. But instead, these things arise only in brief moments, between hurts, storms, earthquakes, war and death. We roam unsheltered and then we stumble on a place to warm in the sun. We come upon a tree for shade, a stream, wild berries. We give birth to some things without pain and die birthing too – leaving the orphan child to conjure the love she needs out of the air. Joy and sorrow weave together and interrupt each other like bickering sisters. We must learn the art of carrying peace inside, using both memory and forgetting to survive, and loving without fear, in spite of, and because of, the world.
All Shall be Well
The cloven heart. The crown of thorns. the face of God traced in blood and sweat on Veronica’s veil… These are unlikely images for a spirituality and theology of overflowing tenderness and metaphysical complexity. Yet the visions of Julian of Norwich center on this kind of God who stays close when we suffer. This God is everywhere and everyone and every why, when we cannot understand. It is beyond us to know the future, but we can move toward that unknown with hope surrounded by the diffused light of God. That light is relief, both from the despair of noonday sun in the desert, and from the fear we feel in the dark of night. A soft light, a gentle breeze, where we can work and try and hope, sustained by brief moments of certainty here and there. With God’s arms alongside ours, we make and remake the world with unfaltering care. It is in this sense that all is well, all can be well, all will be well, and all shall be well.
Readers may download the complete e-book of “Hope Through Uncertainty: Thirty Days of Reflection Drawing on the Life of Julian of Norwich here.
Lori DiPrete Brown is a teacher, writer, translator and visual artist whose work focuses on global health and wellbeing, social justice, spirituality and personal transformation. She holds degrees from Yale College, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Divinity School. She is a Benedictine Oblate of the Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin.
Note: The quotations of Julian of Norwich are drawn from Holloway’s Julian of Norwich Showing of Love. The quotations, which are lightly paraphrased in some cases, are cited with chapter and page number.
