QUEER(ING) SAINTS: Week 2
A weekly devotional for Pride Month
Throughout Pride Month, we invite you to meet surprising saints whose lives reveal God’s boundless love for all people. Drawing from scripture, history, poetry, and prayer, each reflection introduces a different saint whose life and witness challenges us to see God at work beyond the confines of our own human limitations.
As Lutherans, we believe that saints are not perfect people, but ordinary people through whom God’s grace shines in extraordinary ways. May their stories deepen our faith and remind us that God’s welcome is larger than we could ever imagine!
WEEK 2- THE GENDER-BENDING SAINT
SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Isaiah 66:10-14
10Celebrate with Jerusalem; be happy with her, all you who love her! Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her,11so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breasts, that you may drink and be refreshed from her full breasts.
12The Lord says: Look, I’m extending prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like an overflowing stream. You will nurse and be carried on the hip and bounced upon the knee.
13As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; in Jerusalem you will be comforted.14When you see this, your heart will rejoice; your entire being will flourish like grass. The Lord’s power will be known among his servants, but his fury among his enemies.
WHO WAS JULIAN OF NORWICH?
Julian of Norwich (c. 1342–c. 1416) was an English mystic, theologian, and anchoress. She was the first known woman to write a book in English, Revelations of Divine Love.
Living in a small tomb-like cell attached to a church in Norwich, she experienced a series of profound visions of Christ during a severe illness at age 30. Her reflections on these visions revealed a radical theology of God’s love, mercy, and maternal care, at a time when fear of divine judgment was dominant. Her teachings emphasize God’s unconditional grace and the hope that “all shall be well” even when things seem bleak.
She also offered groundbreaking and prophetic gender-bending imagery of the divine, describing Christ as our true Mother— one who gives birth to, nurtures, and sustains us. In doing so, Julian challenged the patriarchal theology of her day. and expanded the church’s understanding of God beyond typical male and masculine attributes. Julian of Norwich is often associated with cats (yes, she’s a “cat lady!”).
Her connections with cats is probably attributed to the fact that she lived cloistered in her small cell, where she was allowed to have a cat to keep her company (and to keep vermin at bay).
A WORD FROM JULIAN
“The mother can give her child to suck of her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself, and does, most courteously and most tenderly, with the blessed sacrament, which is the precious food of true life…
The mother can lay her child tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed breast through his sweet open side, and show us there a part of the godhead and of the joys of heaven, with inner certainty of endless bliss…
This fair lovely word 'mother' is so sweet and so kind in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of him and to him who is the true Mother of life and of all things. To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom, and knowledge, and this is God.”
From Revelations of Divine Love
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
When have you experienced God’s comfort in ways that felt deeply personal, nurturing, or protective of you?
What emotions or thoughts arise when you imagine God, or even Christ, as Mother? How does that challenge or expand your understanding of God?
Where in your life, and in the church, is God offering motherly care right now?
PRAYER ATTRIBUTED TO JULIAN OF NORWICH
In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss. In you, Christ, we have our restoration and our salvation. You are our mother, brother, and savior. In you, Holy Spirit, is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for in love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Amen.
BLESSING
May God our Mother bless us now and forevermore.