R204: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Udalrich von Augsburg
Tossed Yet Called by Victory
Hildegard declares that God is life and portrays the soul as water tossed by storms yet called by Victory to rise above inner turmoil and uncertainty.
Hildegard's reply. Who is life! She shows me these words, saying: You are like water that is tossed about in a storm, and then again settles back into calm. Victory says to you: I would gladly come to you, but you draw back from me whenever you hide the face of your mind, so that you are left uncertain, without wings to fly in confidence.
Shake Off the Dust
Hildegard urges detachment from the world, calls the soul to repentance and cleansing, and promises that grace will come like a dove with healing ointment.
Where you are not in the embrace of the world's contempt. O person, quickly the resurrection will come to you! If you shake off the dust of ashes from yourself, saying — If I cannot stand in the sun. I still want to pull myself out of the mud of dust. And to wash my garment clean from the shifting customs of this age. Then the dove will give you ointment! And wipe away your wound.
Rise into Eternal Life
Hildegard issues a final summons to rise and live in eternity.
Now rise! And live in eternity.
Read the original Latin
Responsumm hildegardis. Qui uita est! hęc uerba ostendit mihi dicens. Tu similis es aquę quę mouetur in tempestate. et quę iterum deinde manet in tranquillitate. Uictoria tibi dicit. Libenter ingrederer ad te sed tu cedis me quando faciem mentis tuę abscondis. ita quod dubius es non habens uolantes pennas in securitate.
ubi non es in amplexione contemptus mundi. O homo cito ueniet tibi resurrectio! si puluerem cineris a te excutis dicens. Si non possum stare in sole. uolo tamen me abstrahere de luto pulueris. et uestem meam abluere de uicissitudine morum huius seculi. Tunc columba dabit tibi ungentum! et uulnus tuum terge.
Nunc surge! et uiue in eternitate.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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