God's Quickening Touch

by Julian of Norwich

WHEN WE HAVE FALLEN, through frailty or blindness, then our courteous Lord touches us, stirs and calls us. And then he wills that we should see our wretchedness and humbly acknowledge it.

But it is not his will that we should stay like this, nor does he will that we should busy ourselves too much with self-accusation; nor it is his will that we should despise ourselves. But he wills that we should quickly turn to him.

He is quick to clasp us to himself, for we are his joy and his delight, and he is our salvation and our life.

Wonderful and splendid is the place where the Lord lives. And therefore it is his will that we turn quickly at his gracious touch, rejoicing more in the fullness of his love than sorrowing over our frequent failures.


Taken from Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, translated by Clifton Wolters, (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Classics, 1966).