'O Saviour I am like that empty shell; Thou art the Sea for me.' Photo: by Adam Littman Davis on Unsplash
Thought for the week: Nick Tyldesley’s beach of the peace
‘You are not far from the shrines of Walsingham, but the sea is the main attraction.’
The city of Norwich is one of my favourite places. I once acted in Murder in the Cathedral there, in its cloisters. The roof beams carry wonderful medieval portraits. I also love The Plantation Garden – a Victorian walled garden hidden away in the city centre. Its rockeries remind those living in flat East Anglia that hills are a source of wonderment. Then there is the tiny cell occupied by the anchoress Julian of Norwich, who spent her life there as a recluse in the late fourteenth century. It was here that she wrote The Revelations of Divine Love, describing her visions of Christ’s passion and her desire to experience similar sufferings. But her theology is positive: ‘At the same time our Lord showed me a spiritual vision of his familiar love. I saw that for us he is everything that we find good and comforting. He is our clothing, wrapping us for love, embracing us and enclosing us for tender love.’ Certainly Julian found all her needs met in her isolation, travelling in mind rather than body to nearby Walsingham.
