Berwick Thought for the Week: Julian of Norwich

At the age of 30, she tells us, she was taken seriously ill and thought likely to die.

As was the custom, the parish priest brought a crucifix to her bedside to give her comfort in her last hours.

Gazing on the crucified Lord, she began to see the figure come to life and there followed over the next three days a series of visions and conversations.

She quickly recovered from her illness and, being illiterate, persuaded the local priest to write down what she had seen.

She meditated on this extraordinary experience for the rest of her life and the result was the book we know today as The Revelations of Divine Love.

This book, now acknowledged as the first book known to be written by a woman in English, is now widely available in a wide range of languages – including modern English.

Space does not allow what Julian has to say to us in a short piece like this, but the really compelling thing about Julian’s Revelations is that God is not far removed from us but closer to us than our own selves; the love of God is not a theory, but is real and is tangible and can be experienced; he is never angry with us, but loves us unconditionally.

It is deeply significant that the screen which will conceal King Charles as he is anointed at his Coronation has a scroll at the bottom, on which appear Julian’s best-known words: ‘All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’