New Thing- Start a vision board
Inspiration: Julian, BVM, Kara
Time: About an hour
Bottom Line: All shall be well.
Reflection: Today is the Feast Day of Julian of Norwhich! She was an anchoress ("one who has retired from the world", someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, and—circumstances permitting—Eucharist-focused life."-wiki) who was totally devoted to the Son of Mary, Jesus. In fact, in her several visions of Jesus, she saw him as a mother himself. Here is a bit of her theological views as explained on wiki:
Julian of Norwich (ca. 8 November 1342 – ca. 1416) was an English anchoress who is regarded as one of the most important Christian mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Roman Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life, aside from her writings. Julian's belief in God as mother was controversial. Some scholars think this is a metaphor, rather than a literal belief or dogma. In her fourteenth revelation, Julian writes of the Trinity
in domestic terms, comparing Jesus to a mother who is wise, loving and
merciful. Julian's revelation revealed that God is our mother as much as
He is our father. F. Beer asserted that Julian believed that the
maternal aspect of Christ was literal and not metaphoric: Christ is not
like a mother, He is literally the mother.
Julian believed that the mother's role was the truest of all jobs on
earth. She emphasized this by explaining how the bond between mother and
child is the only earthly relationship that comes close to the
relationship one can have with Jesus. She also connected God with motherhood in terms of "the foundation of
our nature's creation, "the taking of our nature, where the motherhood
of grace begins" and "the motherhood at work". She wrote metaphorically
of Jesus in connection with conception, nursing, labor and upbringing,
but saw him as our brother as well.
At the beginning of the year, Kara suggested that I start a "vision board." A vision board is a collage of images, pictures and affirmations of your
dreams and desires. My original plan of the day was to lock myself in my chapel for the day to live like an anchorite, but the day had other work obligations. Don't worry, I will be taking up that challenge another day. In lieu of living as an extreme hermit, I decided to take up the vision board idea since Julian spent so much of her life writing about her visions of Jesus. I haven't finished it yet, but it is full of ideas of holistic living, further education that is centered on the mind (book writing?), body (yoga instructor?) and soul (spiritual director training?), family hopes and dreams and a prayers for Christ to increases in and through me. I plan on putting it in my chapel to pray with every day.
I can definitely envision you as a yoga instructor.
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