SOURCE: Frances M. M. Comper, "Of the Union of the Soul with Christ: And How Perfect Love Stands in Heat and Song and Sweetness: And of the Three Degrees of This Love," in The Life of Richard Rolle, J. M. Dent & Sons Limited, 1928, pp. 98-124.

Aside from the Office composed soon after Rolle's death, Comper's biography was the first extended account of Rolle's life. In the following excerpt, she treats in detail the pinnacle of Rolle's union with God.

Richard nearly always speaks of mystical contemplation in terms of love. "To me it seems that contemplation is the joyful song of God's love taken into the mind with the sweetness of angels' praise." Correctly speaking love is the goal of mystical contemplation, but with Richard these two are inextricably involved, in spite of the fact that he writes a chapter on Love, and another on Contemplation, in The...