Morning Prayer | 5.8.26

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:34]Good morning. I'm Jan Cope, Provost to the Cathedral. Today is the feast day of Julian of Norwich.

[00:00:42]Let us pray.

[00:00:45]Lord God, you brought us in safety to this new day.

[00:00:48]Preserve us with your mighty power that we may not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity.

[00:00:55]And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[00:01:03]Collect for this feast day.

[00:01:07]Triune God, Father and mother to us all, who showed your servant Julian revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love.

[00:01:17]Move our hearts like hers to seek you above all things.

[00:01:23]For in giving us yourself, you give us all.

[00:01:27]Amen.

[00:01:28]The scripture appointed for today is from the Gospel of Matthew, the 23rd chapter beginning at the 37th verse.

[00:01:38]Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

[00:01:45]How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

[00:01:56]See, your house is left to you desolate.

[00:01:59]For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord."

[00:02:10]Today, as I said, is the feast day of Julian of Norwich.

[00:02:15]Well known to so many of us, and truth be told, it should be my colleague Dana Carcello filming this service today because she is the in-house expert of of Julian of Norwich.

[00:02:31]Now, Dana would say to you that she's not a scholar, more of a fan girl. And who amongst us, beside my beloved friend Dana Carcello, would claim to be a fan girl of a mystic from the 1400s?

[00:02:48]This Lent, Dana led an online course on Julian of Norwich, which I commend to you, and they're going to drop a link into this morning prayer service, so you can learn more about her um if you would like to pursue that.

[00:03:05]But here's a little background from Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

[00:03:10]Of Julian's early life, we know little, only the probable date of her birth, 1342.

[00:03:18]Her own writings in her Revelations of Divine Love are concerned only with her visions or showings that she experienced when she was 30 years old, rather than with the details of her biography.

[00:03:35]Julian had been gravely ill and was given last rites. Suddenly, on the seventh day, all pain left her, and she had 15 visions of Christ's passion.

[00:03:47]These brought her great peace and joy.

[00:03:51]Quote, "From that time, I desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord's meaning." End quote.

[00:03:59]And she wrote, "And 15 years after I was answered in spiritual understanding, would you learn the Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it you? Love.

[00:04:16]What did he show you? Love.

[00:04:19]Why did he show it?

[00:04:21]For love."

[00:04:22]End quote.

[00:04:24]Julian had long desired three gifts from God, the mind of his passion, bodily sickness in youth, and three wounds of contrition, of compassion, of willful longing toward God.

[00:04:41]Her illness brought her the first two wounds, which then passed from her mind.

[00:04:46]The third, willful longing, divinely inspired longing, never left her.

[00:04:52]She became a recluse and anchoress at Norwich soon after her recovery from illness, living in a small dwelling attached to the parish church.

[00:05:04]Even in her lifetime, she was famed as a mystic and spiritual counselor and was frequently visited by clergy and laypersons, including the mystic Margery Kempe.

[00:05:16]Kempe says of Julian, quote, "This an- anchoress was expert in knowledge of our Lord and could give good counsel.

[00:05:26]I spent much time with her talking of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ." End quote.

[00:05:32]Julian understood that God was both father and mother to us and understood Christ as exemplifying this maternal face of God.

[00:05:42]Quote, "Thus Jesus Christ, who does good against evil, is our very mother.

[00:05:48]We have our being in him, where the ground of motherhood begins.

[00:05:52]As truly as God is our father, so truly is God our mother." End quote.

[00:05:59]Julian's book is a tender and beautiful exposition of God's eternal and all-embracing love, showing how his charity toward human beings is exhibited in the passion.

[00:06:12]Again and again, Julian referred to Christ as our courteous Lord.

[00:06:19]Many have found strength in the words that the Lord had given her.

[00:06:23]"I can make all things well. I will make all things well. I shall make all things well.

[00:06:30]And you can see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well."

[00:06:37]End quote.

[00:06:40]Now, I invite you to join me in the words our Savior Christ taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:06:53]Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[00:07:01]And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

[00:07:12]Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

[00:07:17]Glory to God from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever.

[00:07:25]Amen.

[00:07:27]The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace this day and always. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[00:07:43]Amen.