"During the past century, the explosion of interest in the Shewings (or Revelations) of Julian of Norwich has been astounding. Why is this? I think because Julian’s Shewings are, above all, a gospel of love. They bear witness that we are created in love, redeemed by love and enclosed within love. And because we have been loved in God’s mind “from without beginning,” as Julian puts it, so “in this love our life is everlasting.” Julian understood that love was the meaning of all Christ’s revelations.
Julian of Norwich lived in the 14th century during the Hundred Years War between England and France. She was probably a merchant-class wife and mother before she became enclosed as an anchorite in her 50s. She survived five cycles of the plague that eventually killed half the population of Europe, and she witnessed first-hand the brutalities of the peasant revolt in Norwich. In 1373, at the age of 30, Julian became deathly ill and experienced visions of Christ’s suffering on the cross. She also heard Christ speak directly to her, interiorly."
Thomas Merton called Julian “one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices” and “the greatest English theologian.”
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