All Shall be Well: And other things that don’t make sense

Advent with Lady Julian Week 2

Stained glass window in the Julian Shrine at St. Julian’s Church, Norwich, England. Photo by author.

I had slipped into her office to wait for our meeting, and sitting across her desk, I stared at a small plaque on a stand that read, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. Julian of Norwich.” I was about twenty-seven at the time, and there to meet with a mentor about struggles I was having in my current ministry job. In the background of the job struggles was a recent miscarriage, yet-to-be-diagnosed hypothyroidism that was sapping my energy and giving me brain fog, and not to mention issues with my family of origin that were causing great emotional distress as well. So when I encountered this quote, which may very well have been my first encounter with Julian, I was immediately pissed off. 

My stomach clenched, and my heart rate sped up. How dare this medieval saint tell me everything was going to be okay in the midst of everything I was exper…