R130: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Propst N. von Cappenberg
Darkness and Doubt in the Heart
Hildegard opens her reply by naming the darkness and doubt she perceives in the recipient's heart, tangled in sadness like a mill wheel.
A reply of Hildegard. In some part. I see darkness in you. How so? Because your heart is tangled in sadness, which is turned about by doubt like a mill wheel. saying thus. Which is… Or what is the cause in me?
A Day of Storms and a Father's Rod
Hildegard explains that the recipient's troubled life, like a day surrounded by storms, is God's loving discipline, and from it truth arises from the earth.
A day is here for you to look upon, one that rises first in the morning in the purest dawn. And afterward it is surrounded by the shifting of storms. For that is how your life is. For if you always had prosperity, you would be like a crab, which doesn't walk straight. Why does God allow you to be wearied? Because a father strikes the son he loves with a rod.✦ In this way. Truth has arisen from the earth.✦
Truth Tested in Earthen Vessels
Justice looks down from heaven as God tests truth through human beings formed from the earth, breaking the hard and cultivating the willing with joy.
And justice looked down from heaven. This is. God tests every truth through a human being. The one he formed from the mud of the earth. Hard, stony earth is barely broken open by the plow. But good, soft earth is cultivated with joy. And in either part God is truthful. He breaks the hard and harsh person with toil.
The Sun of Justice and the Kiss of Love
Those who fulfill good works are embraced with a kiss of love, and God's grace floods all through the sun of justice, illuminating every earth and rejecting hardness of heart.
But the one who willingly does all good works is welcomed with a kiss of love — gentle and full of goodwill.✦ And the grace of God floods everything — both the resistant and the willing — through the sun of justice. Everyone who calls out to him from the heart — he hears them, fully aware.✦ For just as God set the sun in place to light up every corner of the earth and not put up with darkness,✦ so the power of God, through his grace, pushes back against this hardness. so that it won't answer him who calls to him.
Do Not Fear Your Burdens
Hildegard consoles the recipient not to fear his torments, for God wills the binding of his burden, and calls him to gather the sheep who come to him in mercy.
So don't be afraid of your torments. Because I don't see your place among the scattered.1 But God wills the binding of your burden in this way.2 Therefore gather the sheep who wish to run to you.✦ But those who don't want you, bear with them in mercy until they call upon you.3 And live forever.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. In aliqua parte. in te tenebras uideo. Quomodo? Quia cor tuum implicatum est tristicia quę dubio circumfertur sicut molendinum. ita dicendo. Quę. uel qualis est causa mea?
Adest tibi ut aspicias diem qui primo mane in purissima aurora surgit. et postea uicissitudine tempestatum circumdatur. Sic est enim uita tua. Nam si semper prosperitatem haberes cancro similis esses qui recte non ambulat. unde permittit te deus fatigari. quia filium quem pater amat cum uirga percutit. hoc modo. Veritas de terra orta est.
et iusticia de celo prospexit. hoc est. Omnem ueritatem deus per hominem probat. quem de limo terrę formauit. Terra quę dura et lapidea est uix aratro scinditur. sed bona et mollis terra in gaudio colitur. et in utraque parte deus uerax est. Durum et asperum hominem cum labore frangit.
sed suauem et beniuolum amplectitur osculo caritatis qui omnia bona opera libenter adimplet. Et gratia dei quę omnia dura et beniuola per solem iusticię perfundit. omnes qui ad ipsum per suspiria cordis clamant eum sciendo audit. quia sicut deus solem constituit. ut omnem terram illuminet nec tenebras sustineat. ita possibilitas dei per gratiam suam hanc recusat duriciam. ne illi respondeat. qui ipsum uocat.
Ideo tormenta tua ne timeas. quia locum tuum in dispersione non uideo. sed deus ligaturam oneris tui ita uult! unde oues qui ad te currere uolunt collige. quę autem te nolunt in miseratione tolera donec te uocent! et in eternum uiue.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.13.24 — Whoever withholds the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
- ↩Ps.85.12 — Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
- ↩Song.1.2 — Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
- ↩Ps.38.9 — I am utterly numb and crushed to the ground; I groan because of the anguish of my heart.
- ↩John.1.5 — And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
- ↩John.10.16 — And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Notes
- 1 ↩dispersione rendered as 'among the scattered' to capture the sense of a dispersed community; could also mean 'in exile' or 'in diaspora.'
- 2 ↩ligaturam rendered as 'binding' — the sense is that God wills the yoke or bond of the burden to be as it is, i.e., God ordains the terms of the burden.
- 3 ↩Normalized from scribal abbreviation 'qu' to 'quę' (= quae).
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
Read one voice like Hildegard's every morning
Chosen Portion delivers daily excerpts from Hildegard and 77 other historic devotional writers, free on iOS.
Hildegard directed souls through short written portions sent one at a time, and Chosen Portion continues that letter-a-day rhythm as daily devotionals.
- Daily 2-minute readings including Hildegard's letters and visions
- 78 complete historic works, translated into modern readable English
- A weekly email tracing one writer's story in depth