“With all that had gone on in her life and around her, [Julian of Norwich’s] belief that 'all shall be well' was not the hysterical optimism of someone putting on rose-colored glasses or sticking their head in the sand pretending all this bad stuff will go away, but the voice of one who has deeply experienced suffering and tried to make sense of it. And the way she does so is through a brutally honest trust in the love of God.

“In a seemingly paradoxical move, Julian, an anchoress who lived in isolation, tells us about a God who is essentially relational: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relationship with one another and in relationship with humanity through Jesus. She uses familial language to describe God and Jesus and their relationship to humanity: mother, father, brother, and spouse. God, in this sense, is immanent and intimate, and has created a world in which everything that exists, exists through the love of God. God makes, loves, and protects, and thus the relational love and action of God permeate all of life.”