Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
One of the heaviest moments in my ministry here at Holy Trinity was the sudden and unexpected death of our dear friend and former President, Judy Evans, last year. Next Friday, May 16, marks the one-year anniversary of her passing, hard as that is to believe.
I think often of Judy, but I especially do so this day as today (May 8) happens to be the feast day of Julian of Norwich, who was Judy’s favorite Christian saint. Indeed, many of you will remember that, at Judy’s specific request, we heard a musical setting of Dame Julian’s famous All Shall Be Well at her funeral service. So, I thought it fitting that I would honor Judy’s memory today with a short reflection on why Julian of Norwich is such an important figure in Christian history.
Julian of Norwich was a 14th-century English anchoress and mystic who lived through war, plague, and immense personal suffering. Yet from her small cell attached to a church in Norwich, she wrote words that have echoed through the centuries with remarkable gentleness and hope. Her book, Revelations of Divine Love, is considered the first work in English known to be written by a woman.
In it, Julian shares her visions of Christ—visions that emphasize not wrath or judgment, but the boundless compassion and mercy of God. In a time when much of the church’s theology centered on sin and punishment, Julian dared to believe in a God who is not only just but tender, patient, and endlessly loving.
Her most famous words—“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”—are not the naïve hope of someone untouched by pain, but the hard-won wisdom of one who gazed deeply into the mystery of suffering and still trusted in the goodness of God. Julian teaches us that even when the world feels like it is unraveling, God is still present, still weaving all things into a story of redemption. That is a truth that Judy clung to, and it is a truth that can sustain us too—especially in seasons of grief and uncertainty.
As Lutherans, we do not canonize saints in the same way as other traditions do, but we honor the lives of faithful Christians who have borne witness to God’s grace in profound ways. Julian is one such witness. Her insistence that love is the deepest reality of the universe aligns closely with our own confession of the gospel: that in Christ, God’s mercy triumphs over judgment, and that no suffering, not even death, has the final word.
So today, as we remember Dame Julian—and as we hold Judy close in our hearts once more—may Julian’s words be more than comfort. May they be a calling: to live as people who trust, even in dark times, that God is making all things well.
In loving memory of a dear friend,
Pastor Luther