Julian is one of the most popular English mystics and wrote the book
Revelations of Divine Love. Living as a Benedictine nun beside the St. Julian Church (from which she most likely derived her name) her theological outlook is based on a series of mystical experiences.
As you may well expect from a book entitled Revelations, Julian’s writings are a reflection of personal interactions with God in the form of visions and physical malady very much out of the ordinary for contemporary Christian experience in the Protestant and Charismatic traditions.
Her prayer life is confronting Julian experienced a three-fold revelation "The first was a deep recollection of his passion. The second was a bodily sickness. The third was to have, of God’s gift, three wounds” with these revelations finding their centre around the topic of suffering. The tone of Julian’s writing suggests a deep desire to experience pain, to experience hardship, and to share in the sufferings of her Lord.This was not because of some sadist mindset or belief in necessary penance, rather suffering was an avenue in which she could know and experience God more fully.
This desire to experience pain and suffering is an anathema to 21st century life.
The same Julian who prayed for "every kind of pain, bodily and spiritual, which I would have if I were to die - every fear and temptation” also carefully conditioned her prayer asking "Lord, you know what I want. If it is your will that I have it, or if it is not your will, do not be displeased with my prayer, for I do not want anything that you do not want.”
The heart’s desire here is to live better for God, to not shy away from the pain of life and death but to confront it and be cleansed by it. Julian sought the refiner’s fire in her prayer and did not shrink from it when it came. Rather she seemed to identify with the words of Jesus in Scripture that says "And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)
Through Julian’s writing we may discover that prayer is more than a simple conversation with God, rather it is a portal for experiential interaction and an interpretation of life’s sufferings.
"For the highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God. It comes down to us to meet our humblest needs. It gives life to our souls and makes them live and grow in grace and virtue”