I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14
“This shewing was made to [teach] our soul wisely to cleave to the goodness of God. And in that time the custom of our praying was brought to mind: how we use for lack of understanding and knowing of love, to take many means [whereby to beseech Him].
Then saw I truly that it is more worship to God, and more very delight, that we faithfully pray to Himself of His goodness and cleave thereunto by His grace, with true understanding, and steadfast by love, than if we took all the means that heart can think. For if we took all these means, it is too little, and not full worship to God: but in His goodness is all the whole, and there faileth right nought.
For this, as I shall tell, came to my mind in the same time: We pray to God for [the sake of] His holy flesh and His precious blood, His holy passion, His dear worthy death and wounds: and all the blessed kindness, the endless life that we have of all this, is His goodness.
And we pray Him for [the sake of] His sweet mother’s love that Him bare; and all the help we have of her is of His goodness. And we pray by His holy cross that He died on, and all the virtue and the help that we have of the cross, it is of His goodness.
And on the same wise, all the help that we have of special saints and all the blessed company of Heaven, the dear worthy love and endless friendship that we have of them, it is of His goodness. For God of His goodness hath ordained means to help us, full fair and many: of which the chief and principal mean is the blessed nature that He took of the maid, with all the means that go afore and come after which belong to our redemption and to endless salvation.
Wherefore it pleaseth Him that we seek Him and worship through means, understanding that He is the goodness of all. For the goodness of God is the highest prayer, and it cometh down to the lowest part of our need.”
Julian of Norwich (1342-1430) in Revelations of Divine Love, recorded at Norwich in A.D. 1373 (London: Methuen, 1901) Ch. 6. This one of my favorite people on the journey through church history. She reminds me of my wife, Jenni.
Julian was an English anchoress and well-known Christian mystic and theologian. She experienced and recorded 16 shewings or revelations of divine love. After that, she dedicated her life to helping people anchor their lives to God.
Likewise, my wife, Jenni, today serves as the Soulcare Anchoress. Having experienced the goodness of God, she too desires that everyone learns to cleave to Him and His goodness, so she spends herself to helping people do that.
Why cleave to the goodness (or generosity) and blessed kindness of God? Julian says it best: “It cometh down to the lowest part of our need.” That’s precisely what we celebrate at Easter.
God, because He is so generous and kind, came down to the deepest part of our need. He dealt with our sin on the cross. As we discover this afresh during Lent, life in the light of Easter propels us to do the same thing.
God makes us into people who are generous and kind. We go down and minister to the lowest place of need of those around us. Or in plain terms, our generosity and kindness gives people not what they deserve but what they need most.
Want help from the Soulcare Anchoress for your Lenten journey? Visit her website and download the Lent 2019 Journey with Jesus. Print it and enjoy the journey of learning to cleave to the goodness and blessed kindness of God.