Paul begged Christ in prayer to remove a certain suffering from his life, Our Lord responded that his grace was sufficient. Referencing Christ’s words to her in her visions, Julian says, “He did not say, ‘You shall not be tormented, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be grieved,’ but he said, ‘You shall not be overcome.’ God wants us to pay attention to his words and wants our certainty always to be strong.”

Paul: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)Ĭhrist did not promise us a life free from suffering, but rather that through his grace we shall find the strength to persevere amid life’s adversities.

She continued, “therefore if a man is suffering so much pain, so much woe and so much distress that it seems he can think of nothing but the state he is in and what he is feeling, he should pass over it lightly and set it at nought as soon as he can.” This brings to mind the words of St. Julian recognized that all earthly joys and sorrows are fleeting when compared to the eternal life promised us by Christ, noting that “all this life of distress which we have here is only a moment, and when we are suddenly taken from suffering into bliss, then it will be nothing.” Through meditation on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, Julian was able to find peace amid her own tribulations and even to welcome sufferings permitted by God as for her benefit. Julian of Norwich was keenly aware that suffering is unavoidable this side of eternity. But this would be a gross misunderstanding. We live in an age that emphasizes positivity and comfort, and it would be easy for some to interpret Julian’s words as evidence of mental illness, as an unhealthy obsession with suffering bordering on masochism. She also desired to be inflicted with three spiritual “wounds,” namely, “the wound of contrition, the wound of compassion and the wound of an earnest longing for God.” In the opening sections of her Revelations of Divine Love, Julian recounts how she prayed earnestly for a vivid perception of Christ’s Passion and also that she might experience bodily suffering and sickness. The writings of the medieval anchoress and mystic Julian of Norwich will doubtless seem strange to many modern readers. The centuries-old writings of Julian of Norwich still offer consolation to readers today.

Divine love julian norwich