From what I remember, Romantic Love as a concept began to be popularized during the Georgian and Regency Period, and found particular favour with the Romantic Movement in the 1800's.
Before that, husbands were chosen for women by their Fathers, based on Reason - a Faculty of the Spiritual Soul, understanding they were the Spiritual and Bodily guardians of their daughters, and were passing that responsibility onto a man who was worthy of being the same.
Romantic Love is making the choice of partner based on Sensibility - a Faculty of the Animal Soul, where the Demonic is given permission by God to inflame the passions, leading people astray via making poor, unreasoned choices. A common thing I heard from Divorcees during the largely-successful 70's / 80's destruction of the nuclear family, was saying they married the first time for love, the second time for security, which is part of the reason why I had such contempt for adults.
Your protection against this is to crucify your passions, exactly as Jesus tells you to do.
Understand that this is nothing new: the 1811 Novel by Jane Austen, 'Sense and Sensibility' is about two Sisters, the elder, who acts on Reason to choose a match to provide for her widowed sisters and mother, whilst the younger chases Romantic Love, only to almost ruin her reputation but is saved towards the end by the King of Beta Bucks, of whom the social network would never dare criticize his choice of partner because $$$.
But, having said all that, you do have a soulmate. God.
Your eventual destination in the spiritual journey a wedding between the Soul and God in the very highest grade of prayer, and this is said to be the goal of our physical life, whether married, religious or single. You'll go through the Meditative Grades of Prayer into the Contemplative Grades, and, eventually, attain Union. Between Early Infused Contemplation and Union are the Spiritual Espousals.
Understand that I'm attempting to use Human Language to describe what is indescribable, as is the Common Understanding of attempting to talk about the Mystic States. I can only explain what I went through a couple of weeks back, none of which is outside the Catholic Church's understanding of the Higher Mystic states, and is beyond our sensible conception of male and female roles.
I was at Daily Adoration, and was suddenly pulled into The Prayer of Quiet, then... I was pulled into a kneeling position and held upright, without the usual balance issues I'd have in that position. Understand in the Prayer of Quiet you are experiencing what is known as the Ligature of the Limbs, meaning, your will has been captivated by God and you are unable to move your limbs at all because your will is no longer your own, meaning, if my body was moved, it was God's Will, as I would be incapable of moving on my own.
So, whilst kneeling, I understood that a proposal was made for a marriage, and I accepted, understanding that I have no conscious idea of it's tomorrow or twenty years from now, but know a date has been set and the engagement is on. With this, I'm being given engagement gifts, such as Spiritual, not Sensible Acts of Love that I wish I had the words to describe the intensity of, and it breaks my heart to realise how long I clung to the stupid little pleasures of the world and how deeply I thought I loved my pleasurable sins, having no idea of how vastly beyond our sensible conception of 'pleasure' the spiritual love of God is, and I could spend the rest of my life apologizing for my stupidity but even if I had a million lifetimes I couldn't even make one cent of reparation towards Our King. I simply beg everyone to understand the truth of what I'm saying: everything you give up for Him he will return to you a thousand fold, so be brave and bold in detaching from the world and crucifying every part of you that draws you away from him.
Since then, every time I walk down the aisle for Communion, I understand the deeper significance of what I'm doing. I'm approaching the Bridegroom, and, eventually, we'll become one.
The traditional Catholic understanding is that 'The Song of Songs' is a parable about every soul and their eventual marriage with God. St Bernard of Clairvaux's 4 volume 'Sermons on the Song of Songs' is the go-to Saint here.
Heh. I just understood the significance of my spiritual knowledge received on Divine Mercy Sunday. That my mother was no longer in Purgatory, and was being clothed and crowned and felt beautiful and loved for the first time in her entire life.
She too was about to walk down the aisle.
