Readings

November 9: [Richard Rolle 1349, Walter Hilton 1396, and Margery Kempe c. 1440, Mystics]

The Collect of the Day

Richard Rolle 1349

Direct our hearts, O Gracious God, and inspire our minds; that like your servants Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe, we might pass through the cloud of unknowing until we behold your glory face to face; in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Richard Rolle 1349

Direct our hearts, O Gracious God, and inspire our minds; that, like thy servants Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe, we might pass through the cloud of unknowing until we behold thy glory face to face; in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe were three prominent figures associated with the development of Christian mysticism in England.

Richard Rolle, born in 1290, was an English hermit about whose early life we know little. Although he grew up in a poor farming family, he was sponsored for education at Oxford by the Archdeacon of Durham. At the age of 18, however, he dropped out of Oxford to live as a hermit, out of which grew a ministry of prayer, writing, and spiritual direction. His writings were among the most widely read works of spirituality in England in the 15th century and include several scriptural commentaries, some theological writings, and many poems. Rolle spent his final years near the Cistercian convent near Hampole, a village in south Yorkshire, where he served as a spiritual director for the nuns.

We likewise know little about the early life of Walter Hilton beyond his birth in 1340, but evidence suggests that he studied at Cambridge. Hilton spent time as a hermit before becoming an Augustinian canon at Thurgarton Priory in Nottinghamshire in the late fourteenth century. In his great work, The Scale of Perfection, he develops his understanding of the “luminous darkness” which marks the transition between self-love and the love of God. His writings were influential in England not only in the years leading up to the Reformation, but also during the Oxford Movement. Evelyn Underhill was greatly drawn to his works and published an updated translation of The Scale of Perfection in modern English in 1923.

Born around 1373, Margery Kempe and her husband John had at least 14 children. She seems to have had no formal education. Though illiterate, she dictated the Book of Margery Kempe, from which we learn most of our knowledge of her. A mystic who experienced intense visions, she went on pilgrimages to Canterbury, the Holy Land and to Santiago de Compostela. She also visited Julian of Norwich and was encouraged by her. Her book describes her travels as well as her mystical experiences and her deep compassion for sinners.

These three writers of vernacular English mysticism, together with the anonymous authors of The Cloud of Unknowing and the Ancrene Wisse, all exerted a great influence on later English and Anglican spiritual writings.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; *my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.

2Therefore I have gazed upon you in your holy place, *that I might behold your power and your glory.

3For your loving-kindness is better than life itself; *my lips shall give you praise.

4So will I bless you as long as I live *and lift up my hands in your Name.

5My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness, *and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,

6When I remember you upon my bed, *and meditate on you in the night watches.

7For you have been my helper, *and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.

8My soul clings to you; *your right hand holds me fast.

Gospel

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Mark 4:35–41

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Romans 11:33–36

33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.