Carol Howard Merritt, 30-Day Journey with Julian of Norwich, Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2021

Rev. Dr Luke Penkett, CJN, ObJN, writes:

Carol Howard Merritt, 30-Day Journey with Julian of Norwich, Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2021

Out in June, this is a beautifully written and beautifully presented book with which we are invited to ‘enrich each day with wisdom from [one of] our greatest spiritual thinkers.’

Merritt is a minister and the award-winning author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation and Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry in a New Generation. She is also a regular contributor to The Christian Century.

Two things strike me immediately about this book. One is you have to really search to find Carol Howard Merritt’s name. It isn’t on the front cover or spine, and you have to look hard to find it on the  title page! Like the self-effacing Julian, there is a humility and modesty here which endears Merritt to this particular reader. The other is that, as the book is set out, it is written for those who are new to the Revelations of Divine Love, yet equally nourishing for those of us who are on solid food.

There is a one-page Introduction in the form of a letter, ‘Dear Friend’, from the author to her reader, ending with a suggestion to journal. ‘Julian’s words’, the author writes, ‘are not a dip in a shallow pool, but a deep dive.’

For each day we have, on the left-hand page a sentence or two (taken from the Classics of Western Spirituality edition) and on the right a brief comment followed by a thought ‘for reflection’. Then, not unlike the Enfolded in Love series, we have at the back of the book a list of the pages from which each quotation is taken.

One thought does annoyingly assail me, as it does with each of the 30-Day Journey books: what happens in January, March, May, July, August, October, and December?!