LASTING FOREVER

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) was an anchoress and mystic. She wrote:

“At the same time, our Lord showed me a spiritual vision of his familiar love … In this vision he also showed a little thing, the size of a hazelnut in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with my mind’s eye and thought, “What can this be?” And the answer came to me, “It is all that is made.” I wondered how it could last; for it was so small I thought it might suddenly have disappeared. And the answer in my mind was, “It lasts and will last forever because God loves it; and everything exists in the same way by the love of God.” In this little thing I saw three properties: the first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God cares for it. But what the maker, the carer and the lover really is to me, I cannot tell; for until I become one substance with him, I can never have complete rest or true happiness; that is to say, until I am so bound to him that there is no created thing between my God and me. We need to know the littleness of all created beings and to set at nothing everything that is made in order to love and possess God who is unmade.”
(From: ‘Revelations of Divine Love’)

“This is the bread, which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate manna and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.” Jesus