Julian Meeting
- Occurring
- Monthly. Every Second Monday at for 1 hour
- Venue
- St Margaret's Church, Topsham
- Address St Margaret's Church, Topsham, St Margaret’s Church 57 Fore Street, Topsham EX3 0HL, EX3 0HL, United Kingdom
WE meet together for Contemplative Prayer. The time consists of a reading or a piece of music and a time to be still. Here is some information.
Julian meetings are held all over the world to foster the practice and teaching of meditation and contemplative prayer within the Christian tradition.
It is a chance to still oneself from the busyness of life, to enter into deep silence, stillness. Many people repeat a word quietly to centre their prayer and as the mind may wander, come back to the word.
We start with music to steady our thoughts. This leads us into our 40 minutes of silence and then music once again to lead us out from the depths of stillness.
Why do we call it a Julian Meeting? The meetings are named after Mother Julian of Norwich who lived in late fourteenth-century England. At the age of thirty, she fell seriously ill. As she lay dying she had a lengthy vision of Christ’s suffering upon the cross and his redeeming love. She recovered and became an anchoress, walled into a small room, with one window into a
Church and one window onto the world.
This extreme enclosure, so foreign to modern sensibility, did not prevent her from having an active ministry. She is known to have provided spiritual advice to many over several decades.
Julian recorded her visions into a book,
‘Revelations of Divine Love, ’which is a spiritual classic and the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman. Her inspired writings accord that the highest form of prayer consists in simply waiting on God. “Be still and know that I am God” (psalm 46:10) If you would like to come along and give it a go, you can be sure of a very warm welcome as we enter silence together. We look forward to meeting you. If this has stirred your curiosity about Contemplative prayer, Julian of Norwich, or you would like to find out more then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Elizabeth Reed
email: [email protected]