Richard Rolle – A Meditation on the Holy Name of Jesus

If you will be well with God, and have grace to rule your life, and come to the joy of love: this name Jesus, fasten it so fast in your heart that it come never out of your thought.  And when you speak to him, and through custom say, "Jesus," it shall be in your ear, joy; in your mouth; honey; and in your heart, melody: for men shall think joy to hear that name be named, sweetness to speak it, mirth and song to think it.  If you think the name "Jesus" continually, and hold it firmly, it purges your sin, and kindles your heart; it clarifies your soul, it removes anger and does away slowness.  It wounds in love and fulfills charity.  It chases the devil, and puts out dread.  It opens heaven, and makes a contemplative man.  Have Jesus in mind, for that puts all vices and phantoms out from the lover.  And often hail Mary, both day and night.  Much love and joy shall you feel, if you will do after this teaching.  You need not covet greatly many books: hold love in your heart and work, and you have all that we can say or write: for fullness of the law is charity; on that hangs everything.

Richard Rolle (†1349) was a hermit, a mystic, and a writer of devotional works and biblical translations.   Meditation taken from "The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises", Thomas Baker, 1910 London