Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

In the years 1348-49, the Black Death made its way throughout Europe for the first time, killing up to a quarter of the population. An indistinctive, nameless six-year-old girl living in England survived this plague, but was surely not immune to the suffering around her.  In Norwich, where she lived, as many as one third of the townspeople died.  Perhaps among those lost were her parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, or friends.  In fact, she would write that twenty-five years later as she faced her own death, she contemplated how it was a pity to die so young.  This was not because she had “anything on earth” that she “wanted to live for,” rather that she wanted to live longer so that she “could love God better.” (McGinn, 2006, p. 239) 

At what seemed certain to be her point of death, this young woman received a series of visions, or revelations, of the love of God.  She would recover from her illness and spend the rest of her life contemplating and writing about these revelations in order to share God’s love more fully with a world in need.  We do not know this woman’s name, but her gift—the first book ever to be written by a woman in the English language—has inspired countless others to find hope and comfort in the love of God, amid the suffering of the world.  She will forever be known to us by the name of the church in which she contemplated her visions and lived out her remaining years as an anchorite, St. Julian’s Church in Norwich, England.   

The prayers of Julian of Norwich’s heart—both to live and to love God better—were answered in a most beautiful way.  Julian came to understand deeply and as few ever do, that loving God better came by knowing God’s love for her—and for all of God’s creation—better.  

Julian’s understanding of God was rooted in the connectedness of all things.  Hers was a spirituality capable of holding both the suffering of creation and God’s abundant and eternal love for creation.  Julian sees that God is in all things. Her message of God’s love is timeless, and acutely relevant in our increasingly disconnected and anxious world.   

The prayer of Julian of Norwich

God, of your goodness, give me yourself.  For you are enough for me.  And I can ask for  nothing less that will be to your glory.  And if I ask for anything less, I shall still be in want, for only in you have I all.  And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.  Amen.  

Today’s devotional was written by Greta Smith and read by Owen Ragland.



Norwich, Julian of. (2014). The Showings of Divine Love. Translated by Grace Warrack. Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.