Julian of Norwich: A Universal Mystic

Week Nineteen Summary
Julian of Norwich: A Universal Mystic
Saturday, May 16, 2026

Sunday
The concept and human experience of mother is so primal, so big, deep, universal, and wide that to apply it only to our own mothers is far too small a container. It can only be applied to God.
—Richard Rohr

Monday
Like all mystics, she realized that what Jesus was saying about himself, he was simultaneously saying about all of reality.
—Richard Rohr

Tuesday
Our sister and ancestor Julian is eager not only to speak to us today but to shout at us—albeit in a gentle way—to wake up and to go deep, to face the darkness and to dig down and find goodness, joy and awe.
—Matthew Fox

Wednesday
Beloved One, may you be blessed because it is so: all is well.
—Julian of Norwich

Thursday
Human joy is essential to Julian’s spirituality. To her, we are meant to be full of joy because our joy in God reflects the joy of the Trinity. Creation is an act of God’s joy.

The more faithfully and hopefully we respond to God’s love in our life, the greater will be the fullness of our joy.
—Gloria Durka

Friday
For Julian, the traditional teaching of the church as the mystical body of Christ is extended to the entire human race.
—Matthew Fox

Week Nineteen Practice: The Sea of God’s Love

In the sixth season of Turning to the Mystics, James Finley explores the teachings of Julian of Norwich. This passage is from chapter ten of Julian’s Divine Revelations, translated by Mirabai Starr.

At some point, my mind was plunged into the depths of the sea. I saw green hills and valleys, which seemed to be covered in tiny pebbles, strewn with seaweed and moss.

What I realized was that even if a man or a woman were brought down to the bottom of the ocean each could still see God. This is because there is nowhere where God is not. Not only is God everywhere, but he keeps us safe and protected from harm wherever we are.

When we see God, we have more strength and comfort than we can possibly describe with the language of this world. We believe that we hardly see God at all, but what he desires is for us to believe that we see him continuously….

He wishes to be seen and to be sought. He wants us to yearn for him and to trust in him. [1]

Finley reflects:

We know that the wind blows across the surface of the water and the waves rise and fall. We live our daily lives on the surface of the water, the fluctuating patterns of our conditioned states of consciousness, and the constantly shifting patterns of our day-to-day conditions, whatever they might be.

As we get into living an interior or contemplative life, we dive beneath the surface of the water. We come to calmer places in the interiority of ourselves where God is with us in the midst of life.

Our life of service still goes on. What happens, happens, but we learn to be grounded in a depth of divine presence that sustains us and is one with us in all that’s happening.

Julian is saying that it is possible, if we could drop down to the very bottom of the sea (an image of paradise), we would see that we’re already infinitely safe.

We’re already the beloved, and as the beloved, we’re already beyond being compromised or threatened by anything because of God’s infinite love for us. We are bonded unconditionally in this love. The mystical realization is the realization of that. [2]

References
[1] Julian of Norwich, The Showings: Uncovering the Face of the Feminine in Revelations of Divine Love, trans. Mirabai Starr (Hampton Roads, 2022), 26. Selection from chap. 10.

[2] Adapted from James Finley and Kirsten Oates, cohosts, Turning to the Mystics, podcast, season 6, ep. 1 “Julian of Norwich: Session One,” September 5, 2022. Available as MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.