ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 29th of September
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
BL. RICHARD ROLLE, HERMIT
He was a solitary and writer, born at Thornton, Yorkshire, about 1300; died at Hampole, September 29, 1349. The date 1290, sometimes assigned for his birth-year, is too early, as in a work written after 1326 he alludes to himself as "juvenculus" and "puer", words applicable to a man of under thirty, but not to one over that age.
He showed such promise as a schoolboy, while living with his father William Rolle, that Thomas de Neville, Archdeacon of Durham, undertook to defray the cost of his education at Oxford.
At the age of nineteen he left the university to devote himself to a life of perfection, not desiring to enter any religious order, but with the intention of becoming a hermit.
At first he dwelt in a wood near his home, but fearing his family would put him under restraint, he fled from Thornton and wandered about till he was recognised by John de Dalton, who had been his fellow student at Oxford, and who now provided him with a cell and the necessaries for a hermit’s life.
At Dalton he made great progress in the spiritual life as described by himself in his treatise "De incendio amoris". He spent from three to four years in the purgative and illuminative way and then attained contemplation, passing through three phases which he describes as calor, canor, dulcor.
They appeared successively, but once attained they remained with him continually, though he did not feel them all alike or all at the same time. Sometimes the calor prevailed; sometimes the canor, but the dulcor accompanied both. The condition was such, he says, "that I did not think anything like it or anything so holy could be received in this life".
After this he wandered from place to place, at one time visiting the anchoress, Dame Margaret Kyrkby, at Anderby, and obtaining from God her cure. Finally he settled at Hampole near the Cistercian nunnery, and there he spent the rest of his life. After his death his tomb was celebrated for miracles, and preparations for his canonisation, including the composition of a mass and office in his honour, were made; but the cause was never prosecuted.
His writings were extremely popular throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and very many manuscripts copies of his works are still extant in English libraries.
His writings show he was much influenced by the teaching of St Edmund of Canterbury in the "Speculum Ecclesiae". The Lollards, realising the power of his influence, tampered with his writings, interpolating passages favouring their errors.
To defeat this trickery, the nuns at Hampole kept genuine copies of his works at their house. His chief works are "De emendatione vitae" and "De incendio amoris", both written in Latin, of which English versions by Ricahrd Misyn (1434-5) have been published by the Early English Text Society, 1896; "Contemplacyons of the drede and love of God" and "Remedy against Temptacyons", both printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1506; and "The Pricke of Conscience", a poem printed for the Philological Society in 1863. This was his most popular work and manuscripts of it are very common.
They have been collated by Andreae (Berlin, 1888) and Bulbring (Transactions of Philological Society, 1889-1890). Ten prose treatises found in the Thornton manuscript in Lincoln Cathedral Library were published by the Early English Text Society, 1866. "The Form of Perfect Living", "Meditations on the Passion", and many shorter pieces were edited by Horstman (London, 1896).
Rolle translated many parts of Scripture into English but only his version of the Psalms has been printed. His English paraphrase of the Psalms and canticles was published in 1884.
This work of translation is noteworthy in face of the persistent though discredited Protestant tradition ascribing all the credit of translating the Scriptures into English to Wyclif.
Latin versions of Rolle’s works are very numerous. They were collected into one edition and again reprinted in the "Bibliotheca Patrum Maxima". Modernised English versions of the Meditations on the Passion have been published by Mgr. Benson in "A Book of the Love of Jesus".
(From "Catholic Encyclopedia", 1913)
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THE NAME OF JESUS HAS LIGHTENED MY MIND WITH THE HEAT OF UNCREATED LIGHT
- BY RICHARD ROLLE
Jesus is the Name that is above all names, Name together highest, without which no man hopes for health. This Name is sweet and joyful, giving truthful comfort into man’s heart.
Soothly, the Name of Jesus is, in my mind, a joyous song, in my ear a heavenly sound, in my mouth honey-full sweetness. Therefore, it is no wonder if I love that Name, which gives me comfort in every anguish. I cannot pray, I cannot meditate but in sounding the Name of Jesus. I savour no joy that is un-mingled with Jesus. Wheresoever I be, wheresoever I sit, whatsoever I do, the remembrance of the Name of Jesus departs not from my mind. I have set it as a token upon my heart, as a token upon mine arm; for ‘love is as strong as death’. As death slays all, so love overcomes all.
Everlasting love has overcome me, not to slay but quicken me. But it has wounded me in order to heal me; it has struck through my heart that it may be more healthfully healed; and now, overcame, I yield. Unless I live for joy, very soon I must die, for I, in this feeble flesh, cannot suffice to bear so flowing a sweetness, and ever it falls into inebriation; the flesh cannot fail in its virtue awhile the soul in such joy is ravished to joy. But wherefore comes such joy to me but for Jesus? The Name of Jesus has taught me to sing, and has lightened my mind with the heat of uncreated light.
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