The latest book to appear on the Repository at St Joseph’s Church in Pickering is something rather special. It is a translation into modern English of some of the work of the mediaeval mystic and writer Richard Rolle, born in the year 1300, in our diocese in Thornton-le-Dale. The translation is the work of a member of the parish, Henrietta Hick.

Henrietta says, ‘It took ten years to complete … more than that, actually. I was originally hoping it would be available for the millennium, which would have been the 700th anniversary of Rolle’s birth.’

What is so special about Richard Rolle? He is part of a tradition of early Christian mystics that includes the better-known Julian of Norwich and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing. But that does not mean his work is inaccessible. It’s the homely advice, according to Henrietta, that makes it particularly interesting to modern readers. On getting up from bed in the morning to say your prayers, Rolle suggests

Quickly rise from your bed at the bell ringing, and if there be no bell, let the cock be your bell, and if there be neither cock nor bell, let God’s love awaken you … think that you hear God calling you.

Richard Rolle was the first to translate the Psalms after the Norman Conquest, his aim being to do so ‘in a homely style with no strange words’. The Fellowship of Angels provides a helpful and fascinating glimpse into the spirituality of a different age, and yet speaks directly to our own.

The Fellowship of Angels [ISBN 978-0-85244-123-7] sells for £5.99 and is published by Gracewing Publishers, 2 Southern Avenue, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 0QF, tel (01568) 616835, www.gracewing.co.uk. It is also available from the Repository of St Joseph’s Church in a pinch, if you are passing.

Betty East