The Saint In Her Stone Cell
a devotional for spring
For today’s devotional, we’re switching things up just slightly. Normally I share a poem and then the meditation, but I’m flipping it around today to give a fuller context to the poem before you read it.
I wrote the following poem back in May of 2022, in honor of both Mother’s Day in the US and the feast day of Julian of Norwich, one of my personal favorite Christian mystic writers. I have shared this poem a few times since, but I always like to bring it back around this time of year, because rereading it brings me comfort. I hope it may do the same for you.
We don’t know a whole lot about Julian. It’s possible that “Julian” wasn’t even her real name, but one that she adopted later. She was a well-respected anchoress in the unkind era of the Middle Ages, living a life of solitude for most of her adulthood. She wrote extensively about God’s love in both emotional and theological terms. Her book, Revelations of Divine Love, was written after Julian suffered a series of visions during a near-fatal illness, and is still a beloved classic of mystic literature today.
In the Revelations, Julian evokes an image of God as a mothering presence, deeply loving in ways that are intimate and personal. According to Julian, God is the Love from which all good things spring. We are enclosed and secure in His goodness, and He reminds us that though life may be dark and grief-stricken, we can be sure that “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well,” a line that would go on to be the most famous expression from the book.
In the confusion and violence and societal upheaval of the Middle Ages, it’s very likely that Julian’s fervent passion for this subject was unusual for its time; it’s certainly unusual even now in Christian thought.
In honor of Julian, I believe it is especially important for us to consider what we mean when we say “God is love”, something modern Christians repeat so often that it becomes rote.
Is there any more misunderstood word than love? To act with love is to act with sacrifice, large or small. To put aside our need to center ourselves in all things. When we choose a loving act—generosity, self-sacrifice, openness, gentleness, compassion—do we see God moving in it? Do we feel His presence? And do we understand that every act of love, no matter how tiny, has its roots in Him?
Julian believed that God was the Source. That without God, any love is impossible.
And even further: that the very existence of love is the proof of God’s reality, nature, personality, and utter goodness.
Mother’s Day can be a difficult subject for many. But mothering as an example set forth by God is a discipline than anyone can practice, if they allow themselves to be vulnerable enough. The mothering love of God is visceral, bone-deep, and incarnational. In it, we are safe.
As Julian wrote: “For as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed.”
the saint in her stone cell feels a twinge in her heart, takes up her quill and writes of God: the mystery of motherhood is that the mother grows as the child grows; she sustains she feeds and her very soul expands; what would it be if we believed that God was closer to us than even a mother? we lie helpless, newborn every day; and our God sustains us feeds us with His own hand; He settles His wings over us with expectation and feels our infant stirrings with an unfathomable delight; and as we grow He grows with us expanding outward, filling the spaces until He’s all we ever need. the saint sits back sets down her quill peers out the stone window and watches the songbird sit quietly on her nest.
Moved by this piece (or simply feel like supporting my coffee habit) and want to contribute a one-time donation? Click the Tip Jar button below!
For more writings like this, subscribe for free!
Julian is one of my favorites also. She was the subject of a couple of posts of mine here recently. I’m amazed that a 14th century mystic is still beloved and revered even today. Thank you for sharing this.
I’ve just returned from a ten day visit with my daughter’s family. Celebrating Mother’s Day together was a special time to reflect and notice how my mothering ways have been passed on. She remembers my patience (though I think she’s way more patient with her three teenagers than I ever was!). And now I find expressing Grandmothering ways is a whole new thing to live into. I love thinking about this, now, inside the framework of God’s mothering ways, that you express so beautifully in your poem. To notice that both of us embody something of God’s mothering love is humbling and inspiring.