Vanity, vanity, all is vanity

*

Come, true light.

Come, life eternal.

Come, hidden mystery.

Come, treasure without name.

Come, reality beyond all words.

Come, person beyond all understanding.

Come, rejoicing without end.

Come, light that knows no evening.

Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.

Come, raising of the fallen.

Come, resurrection of the dead.

Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone.

Come, invisible whom none may touch and handle.

Come, for you continue always unmoved, yet at every instant you are wholly in movement; you draw near to us who lie in hell, yet you remain higher than the heavens.

Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know.

Come, Alone to the alone.

Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.

Come, my breath and my life.

Come, the consolation of my humble soul.

Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.

Saint Julian of Norwich

1342-1430

Feast day: May 13

Patronage: Cats, anxious people, and writers/contemplatives

Saint Julian of Norwich, a Benedictine English mystic, lived as a recluse in her cell, with a cat most likely being her only companion. As one of the most influential writers of England, she wrote 16 Revelations of Divine Love, the 1st English language book by a women. She meditated on these revelations from Jesus about Divine Love, the incarnation, redemption, sin, penance and other aspects of spiritual life for 20 years, when Our Lord told her their meaning, “It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”