R184: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Äbtissin O. von Ilbenstadt
Work, Penitence, and the Heavenly Door
Hildegard exhorts the abbess to labor humbly in monastic life, assuring her that penitential suffering opens the heavenly door.
A response of Hildegard. O daughter of God! As long as you have the ability among her daughters, work and, in humility, sighing toward God, observe your law. Because your work cries out to God and prays. For a person who labors in the cavern of God's justice and on the narrow way. But nevertheless, fate gives its nod to it. And concerning this, it seeks the scourges of penitence. And let no one doubt this: that after the scourges of penitence, the heavenly door will receive them.
Holy Discernment in Bodily Labor
Hildegard warns against excessive asceticism, urging measured self-discipline and humble dependence on God.
For whoever tears at the field of their own body through discernment— a sudden meeting with the end will not harm that person. because the harmony of the Holy Spirit and a joyful life will receive them! But care must be taken that a person not destroy their own body through excessive labors, but that they restrain their failings within reason. Daughter, remember: you do not have the ability to create a human being. Therefore pray to God gently.
A Temple of Life
Hildegard concludes by encouraging joyful prayer over excessive gloom, blessing the abbess as a temple of life.
so that he may give you a better life. And this is more acceptable to God than if you were to beseech him in an excess of gloom.1 May God make you a temple of life.2
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. O filia dei! quamdiu possibilitatem habueris inter filias ipsius labora et in pusillanimitate ad deum suspirando legem tuam obserua. quia labor tuus ad deum clamat et orat. Homo enim qui in cauerna iusticię dei et in arta uia laborat. sed tamen casui adę annuit. et de hoc flagella penitentię querit. et nullus in hoc dubitet quin post flagella penitentię celestis ianua eum suscipiat.
Nam quicumque agrum corporis sui per discretionem lacerat. subitanea preuentio finis illi non nocebit. quia simphonia spiritus sancti et leta uita eum suscipiet! sed cauendum est. ne homo per nimietatem laborum corpus suum occidat. sed in racionalitate peccata prohibeat. Filia memor esto quod possibilitatem hominem creare non habes. unde deum leniter ora.
ut meliorem uitam tibi det. et hoc deo acceptius est quam in nimietate tristicię ipsum depreceris. Deus te templum uitę faciat.
Notes
- 1 ↩The manuscript reading tristici is uncertain; the normalized form reflects an editorial choice. The form depreceris is morphologically ambiguous between subjunctive passive and indicative deponent; the subjunctive reading is preferred here.
- 2 ↩The manuscript form uit is uncertain; normalized as genitive of uita.
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