I, Julian - a fictional biography that rings true.

It is hard to believe that it is over a week since I spent a day with Julian in her city and especially in her reconstructed anchorage. After morning Mass in Julian's cell I found my way a few steps north to The Julian Centre. This amazing centre - library and book shop is a place of welcome and peace. The friendly volunteer offered a plunger of coffee and biscuits while I browsed the shelves. Ever conscious of the increasing weight of my luggage I tried to be restrained however on checking that these particular books could not be ordered on-line for two of them and one just released on hold for 3 times the cost in the book shop plus postage.

Having read the first chapter while enjoying my coffee I bought "I, Julian" by Claire Gilbert and read it avidly of the same mind as Jeremy Irons whose endorsement read "I was completely hooked and considerably moved."

I was also considerably moved by the time I spent quietly and generally alone in Julian's cell.

Her bones lie beneath the new floor and more importantly her spirit of love and one-ing is all around.

I picked up the booklet for The Julian Festival 2024 three days of celebration with Masses, workshops, drama performances, lectures and book launches between the 8th and 11th May and I started thinking about the timing of our possible 2026 pilgrimage, especially when I learned about the 8 bedroom All Hallow's Guest House in the Julian Precinct!

I also learned that the Friends of Julian of Norwich have an Australian branch with 35 members. They produce a newsletter The Hazelnut and they can be contacted at ausfriends.julianofnorwich@gmail.com.

I will certainly be making contact when I get home.

As to Claire Gilbert's book I Julian the Friends Easter Newsletter April 2024 reported that this was awarded the silver medal in the general fiction category in the international 2024 Illumination Book Awards, which are designed to "Shine a light" on the best new titles written and published with a Christian worldview.

I was delighted by the way the author brought Julian's words to life and wove them into her social and historical context. This Julian is deeply human - humble and practical and always focussed on the central truth of God's love for us. She records God saying:

See, I am God:see, I am in all things :see, I do all things: see. I never lift my hands off my works, nor ever shall, without end:see. I lead all things to the end that I ordain it to, from without-beginning, by the same might, wisdom and love that I made it with.

The other thing I love about Julian is the bond that she formed with her cat which she was allowed to have in her cell to keep the mice under control. in I, Julian the author writes, "when my fingers are cramped by the cold I can warm them on his warm body. Burying my hands in his black fur reminds me of burying my hands in my father's black hair as I rode high on his shoulders on summer evenings, and the memory fills me with happiness."

Being able to spend so much time in Julian's cell I brought the Hearth Gatherings community into my meditation, creating a circle of candles in gratitude for our connection. May you be blessed with Julian's quiet certainty of the love of God - our mother, our father, our brother, our sister and our beloved.