The Julian Page

Hello,

My physical journey to find Julian of Norwich will begin in March.  Of course, the intellectual, spiritual journey to find her began a long time ago.  As I get closer to the date to leave I find I have the same excitement I felt when I first went to college years ago expecting knowledge and understanding to drip over me like liquid pearls (It didn't.  I had to work for it!  And am still at it!).  I will actually get to see the place where my friend Julian lived (yes, I'm calling her "friend" although I've never met her and probably won't, at least in the here and now), and sit in the cell that has been reconstructed, and ponder this woman whose words still shape the thoughts and feelings of so many people today.

I have had many messages from people around the world who continue to help me on my quest.  One such email came from another Julian scholar, Sheila UpJohn, who currently lives in Australia.  Sheila has written a book I encountered last semester called, In Search of Julian of Norwich, which I found well researched and full of descriptions about the town, the anchorage, Julian's writing and so on.  She further speculates about the life Julian must have led in Norwich.  I had no idea my journey would lead me to her (at the recommendation of Julia Bolton-Holloway, my co-author).

Thought you might like to read one email from Julia that prompted me to go forward:

As I have suggested many times in this blog, Julia is an amazing scholar; she speaks at least nine languages and iswell respected throughout the world; she has written numerous articles and books (her vita is linked here, with her permission, http://www.florin.ms/vita.html. Even though I was embarrassed to write her, after all I wasn't a medieval scholar, or a theological scholar, but I was driven to connect with those who had devoted their lives to learning about Julian so I composed an email and sent it off to Florence, Italy, to the English Cemetery there (where people such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning found there idyllic last resting place) asking for assistance. I received this tantalizing and remarkable reply:

Dearworthy Carol, I should love to be a part of what you do!
To me Julian is proto-Quaker, declaring all are her even-Christians. (And that means all created by the Creator, all who have that of God in them, which all humans have, being created by the Word.) Fox asked that we walk cheerfully through the world, meeting that of God in everyone. It is a rhetoric of greeting the other as that of God and in so doing creating a mirroring, a kaleidoscoping. Somewhat on the order of Bakhtin's voices. It shapes the other's voice as worthy. A phrase she often uses is 'dearworthy'.
Today's world cheapens lives. Racism murders that of God, whether in Holocausts or in slavery.
Do you remember the experiment of the teacher who had half the class with black collars, the others with white? And the effect on them and their schoolwork?
It's the rhetoric of inclusion, not exclusion, of democracy, not hierarchy.
I think also the great secret she speaks of is God having time go backwards, to before sin, that we can become again innocent.
Yes. It works. Especially needs to be done with babies, who must have contact, smiles, copying, or they will sense abandonment, anxiety, loss, their brains damaged.
I have to keep remembering not to shut people out when I am writing!
Right now with a Roma mother whose four children are taken from her by Social Assistance. We are fighting to get them back. And she is living here. So important to affirm her. So she will have the courage and energy that is needed. It's a kind of empyting oneself into others, then seeing their smiles reflecting one's own. Healing both ways.
Not sure this makes sense!
Best
Julia
P.S. What's interesting is that Julian was speaking to all but was censored. By the persecution of the Lollards which forbade women to teach theology or read the Bible, which Julian was translating from Hebrew into English! And then by the Reformation which forbade Catholic teaching. So women in Catholic families secretly preserved her text, going into exile, risking burning at the stake, prison, in the end, guillotining, to save her theology of inclusion. And finally her book got published.
I think she also speaks to trauma victims as a wounded healer herself.
I'm fascinated by your project.

Who would not be excited by this welcoming message.  Note that "Dearworthy" is a form of positive address that Julian of Norwich used for the people she met.  Here is is used to address me.  I melted.

clt