21 June 2021
In Sorrow and in Joy
I
was filled full of everlasting assurance, powerfully secured without any pain
or fear. This experience was so happy spiritually that I felt completely at
peace and relaxed; there was nothing on earth that could have disturbed me. But
this lasted only for a short time, and then I was changed and I began to act
with a sense of loneliness and depression and the futility of life itself, so
that I hardly had the patience to continue living. No comfort or relaxation
now, just ‘faith, hope and love’, and truly I felt very little of this. And yet
soon after this our blessed Lord gave me once again that comfort, so pleasant
and sure, so delightful and powerful, that there was no fear, no sorrow, no
pain, physical and spiritual that could bother me. And then again I felt the
pain; then the joy and pleasure; now the one and now the other, again and
again… This vision was shown to teach me to understand that some souls profit
by experiencing this, to be comforted at one time, and at another to be left to
themselves. God wishes us to know however that he keeps us safe at all times,
in sorrow and in joy.
Saint Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
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