Optimism is in the marrow of Julian, and expressed most clearly in her famous words: ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’ Her confidence about the future lies not in our strength but in God’s love. It is a certainty that we will fall; but an even greater certainty that God will never stop gazing on us lovingly, and helping us back to our feet. God is a courteous God, a homely God, and one who determined from before the beginning of time to bring us to the bliss of heaven.
