JULIAN OF NORWICH (1342-1416)

“The whole world is a small nutlike ball,

As it sits in my hand it seems small.

It sure looks like it should,

It is perfectly good,

And displays the love God has for all."

Note: Julian of Norwich was a famous Christian mystic (a well known spiritual authority in her day) whose given name we do not know, an anchoress (a woman who withdraws from secular life to live a prayer-filled and ascetic existence) whose cell was built onto the church of St. Julian in Norwich, England.  In her Showing of Love, she likens all that is created to a small hazelnut lying in the palm of her hand.  The language Julian uses is so evocative, so poetic, so beautiful, that I just couldn’t bring myself to write something even slightly irreverent as a paean to her.