Lectio:
“Faith is nought else but a right understanding, with true belief and sure trust, of our Being: that we are in God, and God is in us: Whom we see not.”
— Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
Meditatio:
Julian of Norwich experienced God as wholeness, as a completeness that both surrounded and filled her being—a presence she could neither deny nor escape (Psalm 139:7–10). Through a series of mystical experiences, God spoke to Julian personally. And like all mystical experiences, these moments of unveiled revelation were uniquely her own: a grace revealed to her and to her alone, impossible to fully understand and equally impossible to convey (2 Corinthians 12:2–4).
This is not to say that others have not had similar, comparable experiences; though never exactly the same, mystical experiences often rhyme. Ever since God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8), God has been revealing Godself to us, and God continues to do so until all of God’s children are brought back into Godself, and Godself is brought back into all of God’s children—so that God may be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28; John 17:21).
God reveals Godself to us in and through our brokenness, for if there were no brokenness in us, our entire existence would be the revelation of God (2 Corinthians 4:6–7). These monents, when God’s light shine’a through the cracks in our armor of pride and flesh, are God’s way of allowing us to see, feel, and experience this truth—the truth that our separation from God, our very brokenness, is an illusion born of the heart (Isaiah 59:2). That God is in us and we are in God insofar as we are willing to realize it: “Abide in me as I abide in you” (John 15:4). That we are not separated from God—or from one another—in reality, but only in degree, through the hardness of our hearts (Ephesians 4:18)—something Julian came to see as love’s deepest truth.
Oratio:
There is no place
where love is not
except a hardened heart
for love will never
force itself
beyond the walls
of our consent
yet love is ever patient
ever flowing
ever present
ever awaiting the yes
of our openness
whether by softening
or brokenness
to rejoin us to itself
Contemplatio:
In what ways am I resisting the truth that God is already in me and I am already in God, and how might I soften my heart to experience that presence more fully?
Related Scripture:
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” — Galatians 2:20 (NRSV)
For Further Reading:
If you found resonance in this post, you may also like Lectio: Intimate Healing
~Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling with Divinity.
Wrestling with Peace.
Returning to Love.
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