'"ALL SHALL BE WELL, AND ALL SHALL BE WELL..."

One Fall we were in Norwich, England where Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) lived as a medieval anchoress and mystic in seclusion in St. Julian's church.  We visited her cell and I learned about her.  She was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, whom I studied as an English major during my undergraduate years, and later taught.  My husband included Saint Julian in a book he published with Oxford University Press on spiritual memoir called Our Hearts are Restless.  Her Revelations of Divine Love is the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman.  It's most famous line is:

 "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." 

 I have been thinking about that line as I process a trauma just revealed to me that took place in my family many years ago, long enough that only one of the three persons involved is still alive.  The others may or may not be in heaven, a mystery far beyond my ability to determine.  I, a mere churchgoer with no theological training but one who has been comforted and defended, helped and saved, by the Lord throughout my life.  A person of faith. 

The story I have been told could be a crime rather than a story.  Perpetrators are dead and statutes of limitations are long gone.  All that remains is harm and sorrow.  So I thought about what Saint Julian said, arising from the visions she had when she was dying yet survived  A statement that does not minimize pain, but comes from Christ's assurance that during our suffering the Lord shall be with us and that whether or not all is well with us physically or mentally, spiritually in the love of Christ all manner of things shall be well.  

I need that assurance now and I suspect that many of us do for many different reasons.  It is not unusual to need the love of God in Christ Jesus in our lives.   Perhaps that is all I shall say.  AMEN