There are many rooms

Maybe it's because of a prior awareness that today is the 650th anniversary of Julian of Norwich's revelations of divine love. Or maybe it's because my heart and my brain have become predisposed, after so many years in the Sacred Heart, to thinking a certain way... All I know is, that reading a few words from Jesus in yesterday's Gospel immediately brought to mind a few very special and favourite words from Julian...

There are many rooms in my Father's house (John 14.2)... And there is something intensely comforting in this. There are no quotas, no concerns about capacity; in God's many-roomed house there is somewhere for everyone. Here we find a spaciousness and a breadth of welcome, because, of course, this 'house' is none other than God's wide-open Heart... is the Love in which we are invited to make our home, forevermore. 

And this led me, in a moment, to Julian's Tenth Revelation, and the spaciousness and welcome of Jesus' Heart... With his face full of happiness our Lord looked at his wounded side and gazed at it in joy. I followed his glance, and he led my mind on from this wound, into his side. There he revealed a lovely and delightful place, spacious enough for everyone who is going to be saved to rest there in peace and love.

There are many rooms; there is a huge, expansive, unconditional space... because we are not being invited to come alone. We are invited with those we love - and with those we struggle to love... and they, especially, are the ones who will most help us cross the threshold, and enter into Love's fathomless depths.