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Good morning. Today, probably in the year 1342, was born an English woman whose spiritual writings have been a profound encouragement to people across the centuries.

Her reassurances that the good purposes of a loving God will ultimately prevail, even though we may face the direst of circumstances, have been a source of hope and strength that have certainly helped me in tough times.

We don’t know her name. But she came to be called Mother Julian of Norwich, probably because she became an anchoress, a recluse, living in a cell attached to the church of St Julian and St Edward.

She took this step to devote her whole life to reflecting on sixteen ‘shewings’, or visions, that she experienced at the age of thirty.

Her account of these ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ as she called them, was the first book written in English by a woman.

‘At this time, our Lord showed me spiritually how intimately he loves us’ she wrote, describing how she saw that everything that exists is held in being by God’s love – like a little hazelnut held in the palm of one’s hand.

Julian lived when plague and political turmoil were rife. She had no illusions about life’s fragility or human vice. But so overwhelming was her sense of God’s love and goodness, embracing the whole of creation, that she even saw sinfulness as a vehicle for revealing God’s compassionate redemption.

So all-encompassing was her vision of the ultimate triumph of God’s saving grace that, with utter conviction and compelling faith, she famously wrote ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’

Lord, we thank you for Mother Julian’s vision of the enormity of your redeeming love. When our lives are hard, and our faith falters, help us to know, with her, that we are held safe in the palm of your hand. Amen