Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

In between zoom and phone calls, prayers, and various projects I've been sneaking in time with a book that I've so enjoyed called "God's Kinde Love: Julian of Norwich's Vernacular Theology of Grace," by Julian A. Lamm. 10 pages or so at a time I am inspired again by this 14th century anchoress whose prayer life, leadership, revelations and subsequent reflection continue to point to new valences of the light and love of who God is to those who read her. This book's focus on the nature of God as it is revealed by grace cites from the Short and Long text of her Revelations, and poses that "love was his meaning" is the interpretive key in her reflections and revisions of "the Showings." With this as the interpretive key I encounter today's Gospel text's familiar words "Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?"

Julian writes:
I had three manner of understondings in this light of charite. The furst is charite unmade (uncreated), the second is charite made, the third is charite geven. Charite unmade is God, charite made is our soule in God, charite given is vertu. And that is a fractious gifte of working, in which we love God for himselfe, and ourselfe in God, and all that God liveth, for God. (p. 153)

Cherite, the middle english word for the latin caritas, is distinct from the word for love at the time, and perhaps highlights the grace-heavy nature of the love of God for people, of the virtue of charity, and from where it comes. I'll admit I'm out of my depth with middle english and there are experts on Dame Julian far wiser than me, but I want to share with you why these snippets of reading have been soul-filling in this season. Why does Jesus eat with tax-collectors and sinners? When the interpretive key is "love was his meaning" we begin to see, the intensity of God's identity with this charitable love, why God would come among us to redeem us in Jesus, and how this love is who God is.

Julian of Norwich's theological works weave interiority and the external life, exposit widely on the themself of mercy and grace, and threads ancient theology with contemporary theology with elegance and gusto. Her work is detailed in many books that can go much deeper than a brief reflection here, but I'm stunned by the elegant clarity whenever I pick it up.

God's nature may feel a lofty thing to think about in the heavy days of this season, but who God is gives me hope as one who wants to know what it's like to eat with Jesus, to sit close, and to know that this charitable grace might be looking on me too.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor