The Divine City

My reading place tends to get cluttered, but I am slowly clearing it as I prepare for Lent.  During the next forty or so days, I will be journeying with Julian of Norwich.  I know very little about her, but Veronica Mary Rolf's book, "An Explorer's Guide to Julian of Norwich" is both a very good read and quite informative.  Julian (and no one knows if that was really her name) lived in the 14th century, and I just am not ready to take on what we know as "Middle English."  I need a translator; a scholar I am not.  Therefore, I am grateful for those who are, and I am also grateful for a friend who recommended Rolf's book.  I have already been surprised to learn that Julian, who also was not a scholar, had to learn her own language in order to write her reflections.  She had a beautiful  name for fellow Christians: "even cristens."  In that short phrase, I hear her echoing Jesus: "That they may all be one, (John 17:21)."  In this time when churches appear to be so fractured, I yearn for such connection.   

 

This journey started when I found a small book of devotions on my bookshelf entitled, "All Will Be Well" compiled by Richard Chilson.  This book is from the library of a good friend who passed a few years ago.  Somehow that led me to a book entitled "Hazlenuts from Julian Norwich Meditations on Divne Love" by Ellyn Sanna.    

On this day of beads, dancing, and king cake, I hope to get the renewal of my passport paperwork completed.  That a new passport is needed in this time of my life seems fitting, but I am reminded that God has no such requirements. The journey to and in the Divine City of love, is open to all. 

Blessings on your journey.       

 

At the exact point where your soul 

is connected with your flesh and senses,

at that same point, 

God built the Divine City, 

the Divine Home, 

a resting spot God never leaves.

God never departs from our souls; 

the Divine Essence lives there with eternal joy. 

God finds in you 

the most comfortable home, 

an endless dwelling place.       

  

Hazlenuts from Julian of Norwich

Ellyn Sanna