A Christmas Message from the Julian Shrine in Norwich
Dear Friends,
I’m writing shortly after returning to the Rectory from a splendid lunchtime recital of seasonal music in St Julian’s. Mark Ellis (flute), Sheila Berry (voice), and Pei Chao Liao (piano) treated us to pieces including a selection from ‘The Snowman’, ‘Grand Fantasy on Christmas Carols’, Prokofiev’s ‘Troika’ and Rutter’s ‘Shepherd’s Pipe Carol.’
There were also carols for the audience to sing, and a couple of pieces from the time of Julian of Norwich, including a rendition of ‘Orientis partibus’, the playful hymn addressed to an ass, associated with the liturgy for the Feast of the Circumcision and used in many mediaeval Christmas pageants to sing to the donkey who bore Our Lady to Egypt: castanets in the hands of the Rector stood in for the noise of the donkey’s hooves! Afterwards, mulled wine and mince pies were served in the Julian Centre by members of the ecumenical group which meets each Monday in the cell to pray the Holy Rosary.
During the recital, the two lighted purple candles on the Advent wreath at the front of the church reminded us that we have not yet reached Bethlehem: the lighting of a rose candle this coming Sunday, and a purple candle the following week, will mark the passing days of this season of expectation by which we prepare ourselves to meet the One who came in the manger as our Saviour and will come on the Last Day as our Judge.
The great preacher and teacher Austin Farrer, whose writings have helped me and whom I commend to you, explored this mystery: ‘The God who saves us and the God who judges us is one God. We are not, even, condemned by his severity and redeemed by his compassion; what judges us is what redeems us, the love of God… While love judges us by being what it is, the same love redeems us by effecting what it does. Love shares flesh and blood with us in this present world, that the eyes which look us through at last may find in us a better substance than our vanity.’
After the sun has set on Christmas Eve, worshippers will gather again in St Julian’s to sing carols in candlelight and hear in sacred scripture the story of our redemption told again, Advent hope being fulfilled in Christmas joy. In writing of divine love, Julian of Norwich speaks powerfully of longing – our longing for God, and God’s longing for us: his a spiritual thirst to gather us all together in him, ours a spiritual hunger for the One apart from whom our hearts will always be restless.
In Advent, we wait for the God who comes, but Julian reminds us that he also waits for us, ‘with unchanging demeanour’, desiring that we turn to him and be united to him in love. When on Christmas morning we see ‘this thing which has come to pass’ and the Child lying in the arms of his Mother, and when we are united with him sacramentally in Christmas Communion, we give thanks that divine love seeks us, finds us, and brings us home – and, believing this, we are called to respond with lively faith.
I pray that the inner knowledge of this truth and the joy of this loving response may be the happy possession of all the Friends of Julian of Norwich as we celebrate the birth of the Saviour who (as Julian put it) in taking on our nature gave us life.
My fellow Trustees join me in thanking you for your support, your prayers and your enthusiasm during 2024, and in wishing you all a holy and happy Christmas.
Father Richard
Priest Director of the Julian Partnership