R120: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Propst H. von Hördt
The Gift of Sweet Understanding
Hildegard opens by invoking God's gift of sweet understanding and calls the faithful soldier of Christ to seek his soul's salvation amid a shipwrecked world.
Hildegard's reply. He who pours good and sweet understanding into the minds of men says this. The sweetest fragrance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is present to faithful men. Therefore, wherever holiness is found, There a person can be restored to life in a shipwrecked world. So then, O faithful soldier of Christ. Seek the salvation of your soul.
Stand Firm in Your Ground
Hildegard urges the recipient to reject inner doubts and wandering thoughts, and to remain rooted where love is given as the first gift from above.
While the living fountain fills your mind with its sweet outpouring! Because the doubts you've settled deep in your mind — they don't produce security in you. So stand firm in your own ground. There, love is the first gift given to you from above, when your soul is renewed in uprightness. For it does no good to your soul to go looking for some other exchange! But flee this wandering, so your mind isn't thrown into confusion by its trembling.
Becoming a Friend of God
Hildegard exhorts the reader to live as a friend of God, not fleeing from His ordinances, with the assurance that God will bring salvation.
Become the kind of person who can be God's friend.✦ Don't avoid his ceremonies! And God will save you.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Hec dicit ille qui bonum et suauem intellectum hominibus infundit. Suauissimus odor donorum spiritus sancti. adest fidelibus hominibus. Ideo in quocumque loco sanctimonia est. ibi homo restaurari ad uitam in naufrago mundo potest. Unde o probe miles christi. saluationem animę tuę require.
dum animum tuum fons uiuus suaui infusione infundit! quia dubietates quas in animo tuo statuisti. securitatem in te non operantur. Ergo in loco tuo sta. ibi amans primum datum quod tibi desuper datum est cum anima tua in rectitudine iterata est. quoniam utilitati animę tuę non conuenit. ut aliam uicissitudinem queras! sed hanc fuge uagationem ne mens tua in tremore confundatur.
Unde talis esto ut amicus dei fias. cerimonias ipsius non fugiens! et deus saluabit te.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jas.2.23 — and the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness," and he was called friend of God.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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