Love is indeed a transforming force... diffusive and binding
diffusive, because it radiates its beams of goodness not only to friends and neighbours,
but also to strangers and enemies - binding, because it makes the lovers of one
disposition and will, and makes every holy soul one with Christ. For the person who clings
to God is one with him in Spirit, not by nature, but by grace and identity of will. Love
transforms the loving one into the Beloved, lifting one into the other. The Holy
Spirits fire consumes the heart of the one it enters and, as it were, turns it into
fire, changing it into a form that is like God. Otherwise one could not understand the
words, "You are gods; you are all children of the Most High."
From The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle - a Yorkshire mystic, 1290-1349