In her new book, All Shall Be Well, Emma Pennington explores the teaching of Julian of Norwich and uncovers the true meaning of those comforting words ‘all shall be well’ – a meaning far more profound than a million fridge magnets suggest. Here is part of Emma’s concluding chapter.
2 March 2025
Highest bishop, noblest king and honourable lord
Throughout the visions of salvation, from the tenth showing onwards, Christ has been speaking to Julian, responding to her questions and asking his own. This has been an intimate conversation which has allowed for doubts and inner concerns to be expressed by Julian, especially around his words that ‘all shall be well’.
Now he makes an appearance, but this is not an intimate showing of Jesus as the lover; rather it is as a person of great stature and reverence. The three titles given to him – ‘highest bishop, noblest king and honourable lord’ – emphasise the awe and respect which Christ commands, as well as his authority in the spiritual, temporal and feudal realms on earth. In these honours Julian reminds us that while ordinary people live under the authority of these institutions, it is God the Trinity who holds ultimate dominion over the whole realm of heaven and earth through the person of Christ. It is he who invests these institutions with their authority; they do not hold it of themselves.
This sixteenth vision not only culminates the journey of the sixteen showings to a vision of salvation, it also incorporates many of the ideas and specific language that Julian has used within those former showings. This can especially be revealed in her description of Christ. As we have seen, Julian not only picks up the language of the Son sitting in his city in rest and peace from the example of a lord and a servant in chapter 51, she also refers back to this exemplum in the very same words she uses to describe Christ’s robes and the manner in which he is ‘solemnly and worshipfully clad’.
After the initial visionary unfolding of the example in chapter 51, Christ tells Julian to deeply contemplate the significance of the many aspects which she sees, the clothes that the lord and servant wear and their colour being not the least of these. As Julian reflects on these robes it soon becomes clear that the garments the lord and the servant wear are at various times visual markers of the effect of sin and the work of Christ.
Julian reminds us that it is God the Trinity who holds ultimate dominion over the whole realm of heaven and earth through the person of Christ.
Photo: The Holy Trinity by Thomas Bathas
Christ the servant redeems his city
Julian begins by considering the robe and situation of the lord. Initially he is seen as sitting in a simple place, barren and desert, alone in the wilderness. Though, we are told, he made man’s soul to be his own city and dwelling place, due to the fall it is no longer able to perform this noble office. So, the lord sits in a barren desert and waits for the time when Christ the servant redeems his city by his hard labour on the cross and makes it once more the place of noble beauty where the lord may rest.
The lord’s clothing is described as being wide and ample, which is seemly for a lord, and blue in colour. Julian explains that the blue of the clothing betokens his steadfastness, and the fullness reveals that he has enclosed within himself all heavens. Like Christ in the sixteenth vision, he is fair and most seemly, and looks on the fallen servant with love and pity.
In contrast, the robe of the servant is a white, old, unlined and worn-out tunic, streaked with sweat and tattered by the thorns and nails of the passion. This is the robe of Adam, which Christ the servant clothes himself with in order to take on the sin of the servant Adam.
The exemplum concludes with a vision of reconciliation as the servant stands before the lord, but now the tattered robes of Adam are newly made and he wears a beautiful robe, which is white and bright and of endless purity, full and flowing, fairer and richer than that on the lord. While the lord’s garment is blue, Christ the servant’s is a marvellous mixture of light which is truly more glorious.
This is the robe of Adam, which Christ the servant clothes himself with in order to take on the sin of the servant Adam.
Photo: Christ in the Desert, by Gustave Van de Woestijne
Solemnly and worshipfully clad
The significance of the robes of the lord and the servant to reflect their nature, work and property is continued into the sixteenth vision. Here Christ is depicted neither as the servant with a tattered tunic or robes of light, nor as the lord with garments of blue steadfastness. Instead, Julian sees him as solemnly and worshipfully clad as befits our Lord Jesus Christ. He wears robes which express his authority as the Lord but also the glorious robes of the Son. Julian has brought together in one person the figure of the Lord and the Servant Christ.
We have seen this Trinitarian reference throughout the revelations. But perhaps this image is most closely associated with the first showing, where Julian looked upon Christ on the cross and saw there that the whole Trinity was present. In the same way, she now looks on the enthroned Christ and realises that ‘the Godhead rules and takes care of heaven and earth and all that is, sovereign might, sovereign wisdom, and sovereign goodness’.
Each aspect of his authority represents a property of the Trinity: the might of the Father, the wisdom of the Son and the goodness of the Holy Spirit. Even as Julian gazed on the suffering of Christ on the cross, her heart was suddenly filled with heavenly joy as she realises that within Christ the Trinity is present, within even the suffering of Christ the joy and peace of the Trinity is found.
The Godhead rules and takes care of heaven and earth and all that is, sovereign might, sovereign wisdom, and sovereign goodness.
Photo: Saviour on the throne, with selected saints – mid-13th century painting
The work of the Trinity
Julian sees that the work of the Trinity is in and through his properties of being our maker, our keeper and our everlasting lover and it is through the Trinity, dwelling deep within the heart, that the soul finds endless joy and bliss by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the culmination of her visions, Julian sees the reality of the presence of the Trinity deep within us through Christ, so that no matter what happens, however bad or destructive sin may be, however much this may be forgotten or the mire of this world dim our vision, the Lord Jesus Christ is enthroned there, giving rest and peace.
So, Julian’s eyes have been turned from contemplating the suffering and sin of this external world to the truth of the presence of God within the city of the soul.
At the end of the vision Julian once again heard Jesus speaking to her. But just as in the previous times she received his words but did not hear his voice or see his lips move, so now his counsel comes to her for the last time:
Know it well that it was no raving which you had this day; but receive it and believe it and hold on to it; keep and comfort yourself withal and trust in it, and thereby you shall not be overcome.
In these words, Julian is not only reassured that her revelation is true but also is given words of comfort and strength going forward. As she ponders what Jesus has said, she realises that he did not say, ‘You shall not be tempted, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be distressed’, but he said, ‘You shall not be overcome.’ So, Julian’s revelations come to a close and she sees no more.
The Devil comes again with his heat and vile stench. He mocks her prayers, babbling with his beads and tries to stir her to despair. But this time she sets her eyes upon the crucifix, the very same from which the showings emerged, and she rehearses the passion of Christ and recalls her faith in the ‘holy church’. And so she scorns the Devil, and he is overcome.
Just as Christ had said, in wele and woe we are ever kept saved, loved and pleasing in his sight, and so it is in this revelation of the truth that Julian and we must trust, and then indeed we shall truly believe without knowing that all shall be well.
Give yourself time to linger on these words by Julian:
The place that Jesus takes in our soul, he shall never be removed from without end as to my sight; for in us is his homeliest home and his endless dwelling.
