Year: 2026

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The Paradox of Poverty : a Book Review

The Paradox of Poverty: Why are the poor in spirit “Blessed”:  

Quote from the publisher: ““Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And we smile, nod, and think: “Lovely thought.” But if we’re paying attention, it’s a shocking, almost offensive thought. The grieving, the broken hearted, the marginalized, the stigmatized―all blessed, all happy? In The Paradox of Poverty, Susan Pitchford examines the ways in which followers of Christ have understood “poverty of spirit,” and the traditions that have formed around their attempts to follow Jesus on this radical path. 

  Over the centuries, those who have heard Jesus have learned the truth of his promise that we will find the greatest happiness, our deepest fulfilment―the kingdom of heaven, in fact, our blessedness and our belovedness―in the things that seem to impoverish our souls. The Paradox of Poverty looks at some of the wisdom traditions that have formed this understanding: the Scriptures, the desert mothers and fathers, the Franciscans, liberation theologians, prosperity gospel preachers, the 12-Step movement, and more. At both individual and collective levels, these traditions help us understand that varied kinds of poverty can become a “blessing” by bringing us to know our belovedness in God.” 

My interest mounted as I discovered the breadth and depth to which the writer had researched the “Paradox of Poverty of Spirit”. Susan Pritchard has produced a wealth of information and thought-provoking pages. This is a book which I would want to read again and keep for future reference. The writer shows how we become distracted from the meaning Christ set out for us in the Beatitudes. I commend this book for its insight and richness. 

Text © Michael Butler.  A Julian Meetings member. 

Image © Liturgical Press.

THE PARADOX OF POVERTY

Susan Pritchard

Published by Liturgical Press, 2025, paperback/e-book/ Kindle. 

ISBN  9798400802102 

Also available from Amazon

We invite readers to suggest further books for review, and are looking for further member reviewers. Contact us on https://thejulianmeetings.net/contact-for-book-reviews/

We invite readers to contribute to the Blog. Contact us on https://thejulianmeetings.net/contact-for-blog/

The Julian Meetings support in-person and online groups around the country. We make teaching on Contemplative Prayer and Meditation as easily and widely accessible as we can. Articles and reviews express the views only of their respective authors. 

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Remembering Julian of Norwich near her Anniversary

Julian of Norwich – reflections over the years. 

Our meetings are named after Julian of Norwich, but she is not our primary focus. The churches remember her on the 8th of May, the anniversary of her stream of mystical experiences in 1373. Following the Revelations, Julian pondered them for twenty years, challenging God and gaining clarity. Julian’s final text was hidden for many years, through the Reformation persecutions in England and the French revolution. Finally, a Presbyterian woman, Grace Warrack, hunted out an old manuscript in the British Library and copied it by hand. Sheila Upjohn investigated the story, wrote a book about it, and alluded to it in her April 2018 article. 

Here are some excerpts from our treasure trove of magazines: 

She retained a positive outlook while remaining real.

She is a “happy mystic”, and her writings are full of ‘joyous calm’ in spite of the serious challenges she experienced and discussed with God 

 © Martin Israel August 2003. 

The book addresses contemporary concerns.

“Her book was ‘rediscovered’ by a woman scholar at just the right time, when women were beginning to have a voice and be listened to. It was immediately popular. Here was a book by an English woman, not a foreign mystic. One of us. And her message is one of hope and optimism, not doubt and despair. Julian’s book breathes an atmosphere of common sense, a balanced mind,a loving heart, a closeness to the ordinary, that we all need to hear.”  

     “She is conversant with the idea of God as Mother, most likely through her own experience of motherhood. Jesus feeds us and teaches us as a mother feeds and teaches her child; God wraps us in goodness as a mother wraps up her infant; Jesus is courteous and friendly in demeanour, not some judge who is easily offended”  

     “She would have seen the seamy side of life, had contact with tradesmen, prostitutes, rogues. Her mildness is noticeable in that she condemns no one, and sees God as non condemnatory too. A life of prayer and listening enabled her to see that sin is not always where we think it is, and indeed ‘all shall be well’ despite our faults and failings. 

     “in her cell Julian wrestles with the big questions of life: sin, the humanity of Christ, the place of suffering, what is love and how it is shown, our eternal destiny and God’s Providence”. 

     “If we want, Julian can be our friend and teacher, opening our eyes to new ways of seeing and understanding life, God and ourselves. She can teach us about the value of silence and prayer, of keeping going when there seems to be no feedback. And Julian is characterised by her wonderful sense of gratitude. God is good. The meaning of life is love. And in accepting one another prayerfully and non-judgementally we accept and love the whole of humanity. Truly ‘All shall be well.’ “

© Elizabeth Obbard, Julian of Norwich–woman of Faith and Prayer. August 2008.

During the Coronavirus lock-down in 2020, Julian’s example became particularly relevent:

“Perhaps we can follow Julian by filling time with thoughts of the love of God rather than being led off-track by the media circus. All that Julian experienced led her to write her wonderful Revelations of Divine Love, so full of insight and reflection. The God she shows us in the suffering and compassionate Jesus is the same God for us. ‘He did not say, ‘you shall not be tempest-tossed, you shall not be work – weary, you shall not be discomforted’. But he said ‘you shall not be overcome’.”  

(August 2020 © Gill Butterworth, citing Julian’s longer book, RDF Chapter 68). 

In December 2023, Margaret Coles compared Julian of Norwich with a gifted, tenacious journalist: 

Dangerous  

It was a dangerous and perforce secret mission. While the medieval church was preaching sin, punishment, purgatory and hellfire, Julian was writing about God’s unconditional love and merciful compassion. She wrote that God was never angry, that he looked upon his darling children ‘with pity, not with blame’, had forgiven us for all wrongdoing, past, present and future, and was for ever coming towards us with his mercy and love. Julian knew full well the risk she was taking. Had she been discovered she would have had to recant or be burnt at the stake.  

Persistent  

… She had the integrity to risk her life for the story, as do many modern-day journalists. Julian is a reliable witness, a diligent fact-checker who dared to say, at a press conference with God, ‘Sorry, I didn’t quite get that point. Would you mind clarifying it?’ Add to her extraordinary courage and integrity a thoroughness and rigorous attention to detail and pains-taking efforts to describe precisely what she was shown, a she understood that every detail counted.  

Not an easy task  

Julian confronted the toughest questions, getting to grips with the puzzling and sometimes disturbing knowledge entrusted to her – deep, mysterious themes that take some unravelling. What to make of ‘sin is behoovable’ – translatable as ‘appropriate’ or ‘necessary’ or ‘sin shall be a glory’ – when you support the church’s condemnation of sin? She wrote it all down faithfully, with no fudging. The answer, she discovered, is that the pain caused by sin can become a source of self-knowledge and humility and an acceptance of God’s forgiveness and love.  

An honest witness  

Julian’s best known saying is ‘All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’, but she is no Pollyanna. She lived through war, plague, famine and social unrest. She viewed the world through the little window of her anchor-hold, to which people brought their cares, seeking kindness and understanding. Trust is hard to win and easy to lose. Julian’s honest voice is a witness who helps us, in a world of pain and uncertainty, find the courage to dare to trust that we have the certainty of God’s love. © Margaret Coles 

All the editions of the magazine are easily available on the web site. There is inspiration, challenge, history, and the testimony of many who have found again a living encounter with God. While we recall Julian of Norwich and read her words, in silence, alone or in a meeting, we meet her God afresh in our own age. 

Text ©Philip Tyers, blog editor. Image from Wiki Commons, photograph of statue outside Norwich Cathedral by David Holgate, 2000. 

We welcome contributions to the blog. Please go to our contact page:

https://thejulianmeetings.net/contact-for-blog/  

We invite readers to suggest further books for review, and are looking for further member reviewers. Contact us on https://thejulianmeetings.net/contact-for-book-reviews/

 The Julian Meetings support in-person and online groups around the country. We make teaching on Contemplative Prayer and Meditation as easily and widely accessible as we can. Articles and reviews express the views only of their respective authors.  

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Quality Time is Key in Spiritual Practices

the source of the key quotation, 'the Cure d'Ars'.

I looks at him, and he looks at me 

It is one of the signs of increasing age that one finds modern phrases or sayings annoying – ways of talking that were not around when one was young, but are now in common usage.  Of course, it is when one starts talking to the television and telling characters in dramas and news commentators how to speak that one knows that old fogy-ism has really set in with a vengeance. 

‘We are going to spend some quality time together.’  There is one that sets my teeth on edge.  Time itself has neither good nor bad quality.  It is a neutral space, which can be filled with anything.  It is the way that it is used which gives it its quality.  If someone is burgling a house, the time is not bad, the burglar is.  If someone is helping to raise money for a charity, it is the action which is good, not the time spent in the activity.  Time is neutral – we make it good or bad. 

In the New Testament account (Matthew 14.22-33), Jesus goes up into the mountains to pray.  He has just fed the crowds, he has been in the thick of it, and he is tired out and needs some respite.  It is such a great comfort to know that Jesus needed space in his life, space to pray, space to be alone, space to re-affirm his contact with his Father.  He needed time – he needed time away for the crowds, time to be with God.  It leads us to understand our own needs to give time to prayer.  It makes us realise that getting frazzled by life, getting up-tight, getting exhausted or fed up or out of sorts is not some deep fault in ourselves.  It is simply what happens.  The fault is to neglect to find time, to give time, to that contact with God which is available to all.  The fault is to neglect to give time to prayer. 

St Paul wrote that none of us know how to pray as we ought (Romans 8:26)– also a very comforting passage in the Bible, because don’t we just know how true that is.  Some prayer time seems productive, some seems remarkably sterile.  We cannot guarantee to have quality time when we pray, because the time itself is neutral, and our experience of prayer varies.  What we can do is give time, sacrifice time, set time aside.  Going in to prayer time with the expectation that we will get a lot out of it – that we will have a quality experience – is a great mistake.  All we have to do in prayer is give the time.  Of course, there are different ways of praying; intercession, praise, thanksgiving, and the rest; but that is a different matter.  There is no type of praying that does not require the sacrifice of time, even if only for a moment in the middle of a busy day. 

The Curé d’Ars (Jean Vianney, 8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859) told a story about prayer.  He used to go into his church and find a peasant sitting there looking at the crucifix on the altar.  He used to think to himself that the man was sitting there because he did not know what to do, and did not know how to pray – what could such a poor, ignorant man know about prayer?  So he went to the man to speak to him, and to offer him help in his prayer life.  He went up to him and asked what he was doing.  “I’m sitting here,” he said, and he indicated towards the figure of Christ, “and I looks at him and he looks at me.”  That is a perfect description of contemplative prayer.  And the Curé d’Ars realised that he had nothing to teach the man.  The man, above all, was giving time to prayer, and giving his whole attention in the time that he sat there.  There was nothing for the Curé to add. 

Text © Jonathan Smith Shoreham-by-Sea Julian Meeting 

 Photo  St Jean Vianney (the Cure of Ares) by George Desvallieres  from Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons 

We invite readers to consider writing articles for inclusion in this blog. Have you discovered something that could help others in their prayer, alone or in a group?
I have been reminded recently about Joyce Huggett. She gave many talks and wrote books such as ‘Listening to God’ and ‘Formed by the Desert’. How did she contribute to your life? Her family are inviting those who knew her to contribute to a memorial service in June.

Philip – Blog editor.

The Julian Meetings support in-person and online groups around the country. We make teaching on Contemplative Prayer and Meditation as easily and widely accessible as we can. Articles and reviews express the views only of their respective authors.  

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Musing on Lent and Easter music. 

crown of thorns with title lent and easter © Blackburn Cathedral

During the installation of Abp. Sarah Mullally, lines were sung from the words of Julian of Norwich. The composer Joanna Marsh had compiled these words in her anthem All Shall Be Well in 2021. Lyrics and music © Joanna Marsh

Without love we may not live 

And in this love our life is everlasting.                                            

Love was without beginning, is and shall be without ending. 

All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. 

Ah! Good Lord, how might it all be well? 

For wickedness hath been suffered to rise  
contrary to the Goodness. 

 I it am, the Might and the Goodness of the Fatherhood; 

 I it am, the Wisdom of the Motherhood; 

 I it am, the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love. 

The Blackburn Chamber Choir sang a programme of music for Lent and Easter. Various pieces gave different views of God and his work with us.  

One prayed that God “will not hide his face from us or cast us off in displeasure.” It pleaded with God to forgive all our sins. Another, by the same composer (Richard Farrant d. 1580), asked God to remember his tender mercy and loving kindness, instead of “the sins and offenses of our youth.”  

A twentieth century piece, “Solus ad Victinam”, by Kenneth Leighton (d.1988) used words by Peter Abelard who died in 1142. It reflected on Christ giving himself as a sacrifice for our sin. It asked that we will suffer Christ’s pain for the 3 days. By doing so, we aim to win his mercy. This allows us to share his glory and “the laughter of his Easter day”.

These concepts seem alien today. The idea of pleading for forgiveness seems foreign. The sense that God is displeased with us and would punish us is also unfamiliar. The yearning to suffer with Christ is even more so.  

Our Bishop said that Jesus had sought us. He saved us. Then, He sat down after completing His task (Hebrews 1:3). God is all loving kindness. We do not need to plead for what he has already given. 

Another more popular piece from the Romantic era (Mendlesson d. 1847), asked God to listen because the godless and wicked oppress the writer. It then yearned for ‘the wings of a dove: far away would I rove… In the wilderness build me a nest to remain there for ever at rest’. It felt like sheer escapism, more the self-indulgence of the composer than the spiritual resourcing of the listeners.  

Do we come to Julian meetings or meditate at home, to have time ‘at rest’? Or do we meditate because, as another piece (Ubi Caritas Ola Gujielo b. 1978) reminded us, “where love is, there is God,” who binds us together in unity? in Christ we are one with each other and with God. We come to experience that, not merely assert it .  

Richard Rohr and others expand that unity. In Christ, we are one with people of any ethnic background. We are one with those who speak any language. We are united with people of any religion. We are at one with both the poor and the rich. We are at one with God. Despite our current wars, we are at one with Ukrainian and Russian, American, Israeli, Palestinian and Iranian.  The is no duality between God and people, and no ‘us’ and ‘them’ between people groups.

The broad range of Christian prayers use many pictures of God and his action on us. In silence, we allow God simply to be himself. We open ourselves to a new, simple vision. We discover the tranquility underlying the discords and upsets of the world. We also drop the chaos of our minds. This is not to ‘remain forever at rest,’ but to face with confidence whatever comes next. 

Text © Philip Tyers.  

Image © Blackburn Cathedral, used with permission

 The Julian Meetings support in-person and online groups around the country. We make teaching on Contemplative Prayer and Meditation as easily and widely accessible as we can. Articles and reviews express the views only of their respective authors.

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Job – the Problem of Suffering and the Problem of God.

tree segments showing damage in the rings Copyright p tyers

Janet has written about how reflecting on the book of Job helped her come to terms with grief. We invite our readers to write reflections on topics that join prayer and life. We would also like to hear about your groups. We hope to publish the next blog at Easter. Philip Tyers, Editor

The photo shows suffering endured by a tree over many years,  invisible to outsiders.  

Janet writes:

Many years ago, as a family, we suffered a grievous loss. It was a body blow of the most radical kind, a happening which severely questions belief. I do not think that I asked, “Why did this happen to me?” Suffering happens to most if not all people at some time in their lives. It caused me to ask questions about the roots of suffering.  

Fortunately, I came across a book, which provided some answers. Harold Kushner was a rabbi. He had suffered the death of a son. His son was born with an incurable and rare disease. The son died when he was fourteen. Kushner, inevitably, had mused upon this death, had asked questions of God. It was his chapter on the book of Job that helped me most. Kushner made three statements: 

  1. God is all- powerful and causes everything that happens in this world. Nothing happens without him willing it. 
  1. God is just and fair, and stands for people getting what they deserve, so that the good prosper and the wicked perish. 
  1. Job is a good person. 

He postulated that we cannot make sense of all these statements. We must sacrifice one in order to believe in the other two. His answer, which has become mine, is that God is not all-powerful. There are things which God cannot control. When disasters of any kind occur, we should not regard them as “acts of God” but turn to God to help us to live through them. God does this in many profound ways. That is a simplistic and inadequate comment on this wise book, but it helped me, as it has helped others for many years.  

This returned me to the Book of Job itself. It has been called the “most wonderful poem of any age and language; our first, oldest statement of the never ending problem – man’s destiny and God’s way with him in this world” (Thomas Carlyle). The saga of Job’s suffering, the arguments of his friends and the magisterial arguments of God need to be read repeatedly.  

Recently, I came across Andy Roland’s ‘The Book of Job.’ The author has abbreviated the text and arranged it for private reading, for group study and for public performance. The concluding chapter discusses the meaning of Job as the author finds it. He suggests, as does Kushner, that it not only discusses the problem of suffering but also the problem of God.  

A reading of all three books requires deep and searching thought and helps us to  

  • “Forgive the world for not being perfect,  
  • Forgive God for not making a perfect world,  
  • Reach out to the people around us  
  • Go on living despite it all” (Kushner). 

REFERENCES: 

Harold Kushner: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Pan Books; 1st published 1981, and again with new introduction 2002. ISBN 9780330490559 Also available on Kindle.

Author unknown: The Book of Job – The Bible. 

Andy Roland: The Book of Job. Filament publishing. 2019 ISBN 9781913192501  Also available on Kindle.

Photo © Philip Tyers 2026

 Text ©Janet Robinson 2026. 

Editor: Philip Tyers

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Silence Is

Often, silence is approached via activity –  

the seeking of something in tandem with the resistance of other thing(s).  

Yet, silence is not the pursuit of a state but indeed  

a cessation of activity that reveals the innate ground of being. 

 Later, our mind attempts to describe That with words such as  

stillness, peace, truth, love, beauty  

or indeed silence. 

Silence isn’t audio-centric here. 

 It is a word chosen to poetically articulate  

That within which all of It’s modulations arise.  

When the soul ceases the reification of itself  

and surrenders into That which it borrows its presence from; Silence Is. 

When we die to ourselves  

and let the weather patterns of creation come and go, 

 there is only Itself.  

When we are reborn as/in experience,  

we describe That whence we came from as Silence. 

 Yet, unlike experience, Silence never truly comes or goes –  

it is the ever-present canvas upon which all experiences arise.  

Thus, we needn’t turn away from experience  

but simply recognise its substance;  

revealing that there is only, 

has only,  

can only,  

will only (Be)  

Silence and its modulations. 

Surrender is to Silence as fire is to wood. 

©Jamie Robson https://jamierobson.com

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Fast for Peace Cultivating Inner Harmony and Love

For there to be peace in the world, there first has to be peace in our hearts and minds. With war, famine, disease, poverty, corruption and polarised political differences being rife, world peace could seem an impossible goal. Yet there is something that we all can do to make a significant contribution wherever we are. Whilst we may have little or no control over world events, we have influence over what happens in our own minds, lives, families and communities. Whatever change we wish to see in our world requires us to embody it. So, if we want more peace we need to be more peaceful; if we want more love, then more loving etc. 

Our thoughts give rise to our words and actions therefore we need to pay attention to what is going on in our minds. We also need to be aware of what we fill our minds with. In these days of endless news feeds, television and social media it is easy for us to lend a false authenticity to what we choose to listen to as being a true account of an event or the actions of world leaders, politicians, the rich and powerful. However, everything we read and hear is someone’s opinion. The problem is that if we accept such accounts at face value, we are likely to repeat them. It is so easy, particularly when we are in conversation, to agree with statements which are negative or of uncertain origin, and to repeat them. We may have no other frames of reference as to their ‘truth’. 

Jesus said, ‘The mouth speaks what the heart is full of’. We can thus discern from the conversation of others something of the content of their hearts. More importantly, we can become aware of our own hearts through self examination and attention to our thoughts which give rise to the words that we speak.                                             

True peace is not something that can be fought for or won. It is a state of being, an inner sense of wellbeing and benevolence towards others, including those with whom we may disagree. In order to pray authentically for peace, I believe it is necessary to adopt a position of neutrality. If we judge or condemn another (be it an individual, a group or a country) we risk losing our own inner peace. If we truly believe that the God in us serves the God in others we cannot take sides. The suffering of one is no less than that of the other, (no matter how it appears to us) and therefore we cannot wish one side to prevail over the other. We need the inner freedom to desire peace, love and healing for all, whether in local, national or international conflict or in our daily lives. Otherwise all that is achieved is a standoff. True peace is not simply a cessation of violence, rather it is the setting aside of grievances and the coming together of both sides with a mutual desire to live in harmony, to offer and receive forgiveness, e.g. the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post apartheid South Africa. The extent of our openness to being non judgemental, loving, peaceful and forgiving in our daily lives determines whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. 

At this time of year as we come towards lent, instead of, (or perhaps, as well as), foregoing something that we enjoy, we could address the deeper transformation of our minds which the apostle Paul spoke of to the Roman church when he said, ‘Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds’. Through a process of self examination we might seek to abstain from judgement and criticism, and temper our political and ideological preferences. We could address our leanings toward negativity and seek to be positive and encouraging in our speech. We could be attentive to our thoughts and words, the ways in which we nourish our minds and be mindful of what comes in through our eyes and ears via the media, what we read; our political, religious, ideological and social affiliations. We could, in fact, begin to, fast for peace.      

© K Marsh 10 February 2026 

Image from: https://www.pexels.com/@the-daphne-lens-2151762624