I’ve been slowly reading a lovely book called Lectio Divina—The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images into Heart-Centered Prayer by Christine Valters Paintner. Lectio divina, which means divine reading, involves experiencing sacred text and then listening with the heart for a word or phrase that calls out to you. It is a process that Valters Paintner describes in four movements of Reading, Reflecting, Responding and Resting.
The Christian mystic Julian of Norwich has been on my mind lately, and her words “all shall be well” keep coming up and calling out to me. Reverend Rebecca Hinds talked about Julian of Norwich in a recent Sunday morning church sermon, reminding us that the fourteenth-century anchorite nun lived through waves of the Black Plague in England and that on what she thought was her deathbed received visions that would be written in her book Revelations of Divine Love (the oldest surviving book written in the English language by a woman). I hope to read through this sacred book myself someday. In the meantime, during this time of pandemic and PanDeepening, I am holding Mother Julian’s words “All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” in my heart.
For Easter Sunday, I learned the song Bells of Norwich by Sydney Carter, in reference to the words of Julian of Norwich and the hope and promise of springtime coming. My favorite words and images of the song are:
Love like a yellow daffodil is coming through the snow.
All shall be well again, I know.
Christine Valters Paintner also describes nature as sacred text, with creation being a “book” of revelation. As I walk through my neighborhood each day lately, I am blessed with the truly glorious yellow daffodils growing up and out as the first sign of spring. Each time I see the bright, hopeful face of a daffodil my heart is filled with the revelation of divine love and the words of Mother Julian calling out, All Shall Be Well.
—Angie Pierce Jennings, Prairiewoods hosted groups and hospitality coordinator