R116: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Abt N. von Ilbenstadt
A Serene Light and a Troubled Heart
Hildegard, speaking from serene divine illumination, confronts a man who dares to contemplate Christ yet hesitates to receive the Eucharist, questioning his anxious over-examination.
Hildegard's reply. The serene light that gives words for reflection. she says. O man! You have confidence in thinking upon the Son of God. But still you hesitate to break that bread. Which he himself wishes you to eat, as your mind prompts you. How and why do you circle around, sifting through various things and looking from every side?
Rise to the Light
Hildegard presses the question of how Christ is truly present in the liturgy, then calls the addressee to rise into the light, live forever, and trust that God protects the one who holds Him in all things.
Where can that thing be found which is present in the ceremony? Why do you do this? God builds up any cause in which someone works well and justly. Rise up, then, to the light! And you will live forever. For God has a burnt offering in his instrument. Blessed is the one who always holds God in all his affairs. Because the devil will never deceive him.
Live and Be Victorious
Hildegard closes with a direct call to live courageously and gain victory in this shadowed world.
Live, then — you, O man! And be victorious in this shadowed world.1
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Serena lux quę dat uerba ruminandi. dicit. O homo! tu habes fiduciam cogitandi in filium dei. Sed tamen dubitas cibum illum frangere. quem ipse comedere uis in dictante mente tua. Quomodo et quare circuis diuersa cribrando et undique aspiciendo.
ubi inueniatur res illa quę in cerimonia sit? Quare facis hoc? Deus edificat in quacumque bene et iuste operante causa. Surge ergo ad lumen! et in eternum uiues. Nam deus habet sibi holocaustum in instrumento suo. Beatus est ille qui deum semper tenet in omnibus causis suis. quia diabolus illum numquam decipiet.
Uiue ergo tu o homo! et esto uictoriosus in obumbroso mundo.
Notes
- 1 ↩obumbroso (rare form, from obumbrosus) rendered as 'shadowed' to convey the world as darkened or overshadowed — a common Hildegardian image for the fallen, transient order.
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