When Margie Met Julie - Margery Kempe And Julian Of Norwich

1415

Historians love encounters. When they find evidence that one historical figure met another, their wheels start spinning. What was said? How did each affect the other?

The Book of Margery Kempe describes such a meeting between the author and Julian of Norwich (the only historical reference to Julian outside her own writings), occurring sometime around 1415. Margery would have been in her forties, a commoner paying visits to various spiritual leaders in England and Rome, learning what she could learn, but also testing out her own Christian experience. Now in her seventies, Lady Julian was living alone in a small room in a church. Margery stayed with her for several days, in “holy dalliance . . . communing in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Try to imagine the dynamics in that room. From their writings, we see Julian as quiet, completely centered in God’s love, while Margery was a bundle of energy, self-conscious, desperate to verify her visions. Was there a breathless quality in Margery’s plea for advice? Can you hear a sigh from Lady Julian? Perhaps there were many corrections that could have been offered, but the older woman did not rebuke the younger, a fact that Margery took comfort in. It was clear that the Holy Spirit was in Margery’s soul, said Julian, but she needed to “measure these experiences according to the worship they accrue to God and the profit to her fellow Christians.”

Understand the times. We look back and see two giants of early English writing, but they saw themselves simply as women with visions. Both had critics accusing them of heresy, a charge that could lead to capital punishment in this world and worse woes in the next. So Margery had plenty to worry about, but Julian seemed to be an anchor of calm. “Set all your trust in God,” she said, “and fear not the language of the world.”

This amazing encounter can instruct men and women in any age. Your experience of Jesus may be misunderstood by those around you. It’s always a good idea to test it out with older, wiser believers you respect. Measure your experience by this question: Does it glorify God and help Christians? And then forge ahead, putting all your trust in God.

God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.

1 John 4:13