Richard Rolle: The English Works

…a milestone in American religious publishing.
New Catholic World

Richard Rolle: The English Works translated, edited and introduced by Rosamund S. Allen preface by Valerie M. Lagorio

If you wish to be on good terms with God, and have his grace direct your life, and come to the joy of love, then fix his name ‘Jesus’ so firmly in your heart that it never leaves your thought. And when you speak to him using your customary name ‘Jesu’, ‘ in your ear it will be joy, in your mouth honey, and in your heart melody, because it will seem joy to you to hear that name being pronounced, sweetness to speak it, cheer and singing to
think it. Richard Rolle

This is important volume is a modern English translation of Richard Rolle’s English writings. Much of the translation is based on Hope Emily Allen’s Middle English edition of 1931. It is supplemented by more complete versions of the English Psalter and the Meditations on the Passion.

It aims at a presentation of Rolle in today’s language, and for readers with a modern approach to spirituality who are interested in the religious aims and idioms of the past. The book also seeks to convey some of Rolle’s religious fervor, and above all the measured cadence of his prose style, placing him within the context of the ideas and language of his own age.