R218: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Magister Udo von Paris
Hildegard's Humble Greeting
Hildegard opens with humility, describing herself as a poor figure speaking from the lofty mountain, and honors Udo's teaching office.
Hildegard's reply. I, a poor humble figure! I speak in the smoke of spices from the lofty mountain. The sun comes down with its own light! And it illuminates many outbursts of shifting circumstances in various places. So, O master, in your teaching office you hold many streams in the Scriptures. Streams that you sometimes scatter among others. That is, among both great and small.
The King's Court and the Feather
Hildegard expresses deep personal unworthiness, then tells of a king on his throne with splendid ornaments, and a feather lifted by royal command, carried not by its own strength but by the air.
I'm deeply shaken! because of my lowly form. whatever is within me. Now listen. A king sat on his throne. and he set up great columns, and very fine ones, with grand ornaments before him. which stood above the ivory ornaments. and all the king's garments were carried in great honor. And they were showing those things everywhere. Then it pleased the king. And she lifted a small feather from the ground! And she commanded it to fly, just as that same king wished. But a feather doesn't fly by itself — the air carries it. In the same way, I'm not steeped in human learning. Nor in the strength of the powerful. Nor do I burn with bodily health — but I stand firm in God's help.
Taught by Vision, Not by Human Learning
Hildegard explains that what she knows of God's fatherhood and divinity comes not from human reasoning but from a true vision, since no human has authority to speak of God on their own.
And I tell you how I was taught in a true vision. what the paternity and the divinity are. since from you I received this as necessary for many people. so that they may be strengthened in true faith. I saw toward the true light and I learned, watchfully and openly, by seeing. and not through searching by myself within myself what the paternity and divinity of God is. because a human being has no authority to speak about God the way one can speak about the humanity of another person. and the way one might speak about the color of a finished work from the hand of a person.
The Living Light and the God Who Is
Hildegard proclaims that God is full, whole, without beginning, indivisible, and utterly unique, and she echoes the divine self-naming: I am who I am.
The living light, therefore, speaks in the hidden word of wisdom. God is full and whole and without beginning of times. Therefore it cannot be divided by speech, as a human being can be divided. Because God is the whole and no other. And for that reason nothing can be taken away from him or added to him. Fatherhood also, and Divinity — that is what it is. Who is, as it has been said. I am who I am.✦
Fullness That Creates and Perfects
Hildegard insists that fatherhood and divinity are truly God, and that God's fullness is expressed in making, creating, and perfecting, so that to deny this is to name a point without a circle.
And the one who is fullness has it— how? Of making! Of creating! Of perfecting. For whoever says that fatherhood and divinity are not God— this one names a point without a circle!
God Is All That Is in God
Hildegard warns that denying God's eternity or the divinity of fatherhood introduces emptiness into God, but God is full, and nothing in God is not God, beyond all human reckoning.
The one who denies that he is eternal— And whoever denies that paternity and divinity are God, denies God. Because he wants there to be some emptiness in God—which is not! But God is full. And what is in God is God. For God can't be shaken out or written out by human reckoning! Because in God there's nothing that isn't God. And since the creature has a beginning—
A Call to Walk in God's Paths
Hildegard concludes by urging Udo to walk straight paths, submit to God, become a living stone in the cornerstone, and so remain in the tree of life.
From this, human reason discovers God through names. And just as it, by its own nature, is full of names. Now listen again, O man, to the humble form speaking to you in the spirit. God wants you to walk straight paths. And that you should be subject to him. And that you should be a living stone in the cornerstone!✦ And you will not be destroyed from the tree of life.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Ego paupercula forma! in fumo aromatum montis excelsi dico. Sol lumine suo descendit! et multas indignationes uicissitudinum locorum illustrat. Sic o tu magister in magistratione multos riuulos in scripturis habes. quos inter alios interdum spargis! scilicet inter magnos et paruos.
Ualde tremisco! propter humilem formam. quę in me est. Nunc audi. Rex in solio suo sedit. et magnas columpnas et ualde elegantes in magnis ornamentis coram se statuit. quę supra ornamenta eboris erecta sunt. et quę omnia indumenta regis in magnis honoribus gestabant.
et ea ubique ostendebant. Tunc regi placuit. et paruam pennam de terra leuauit! et illi precepit ut uolaret sicut idem rex uoluit. Penna autem a seipsa non uolat sed aer eam portat. Sic ego non sum imbuta humana doctrina. nec potentibus uiribus. nec etiam estuo in sanitate corporis sed in adiutorio dei consisto.
Et dico qtibi quomodo in uera uisione edocta sum. quid paternitas et diuinitas sit. quoniam a te percepi hoc plurimis necessarium esse! quatenus in uera fide roborentur. Ad uerum lumen uidi et didici uigilanter et aperte uidendo. et non per me in me requirendo quod paternitas et diuinitas deus est! quia homo potestatem hanc non habet ut de deo dicat sicut de humanitate hominis. et sicut de colore facti operis de manu hominis.
Viuens ergo lux in secreto uerbo sapientię dicit. Deus plenus est et integer et absque principio temporum. ideo non potest diuidi sermone sicut homo diuidi potest. quoniam deus totum est et non alius. et idcirco illi nichil abstrahendum aut addendum est. Paternitas etiam et diuinitas ille est. qui est ut dictum est. Ego sum qui sum.
Et qui est plenitudinem habet. Quomodo? Faciendi. creandi! perficiendi. Quicumque enim dicit. quod paternitas et diuinitas non sit deus. hic nominat punctum absque circulo!
illum qui eternus est negans. Et quicumque negat quod paternitas et diuinitas deus sit deum negat. quia uult quod aliqua uacuitas in deo sit quod non est! sed deus plenus est. et quod in deo est deus est. Deus enim nec excuti nec excribrari potest secundum hominem! quia in deo nichil est quod deus non sit. Et quoniam creatura inicium habet.
ex hoc inuenit racionalitas hominis deum per nomina. sicut et ipsa proprietate sua plena est nominum. Nunc iterum audi o homo pauperculam formam in spiritu tibi dicentem. Deus uult ut recta itinera facias. et ut illi subiectus sis. et uiuus lapis sis in lapide angulari! et de ligno uitę non deleberis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.3.14 — And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.'
- ↩Eph.2.20 — built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone
- ↩Rev.22.2 — In the middle of the city's street, and on both sides of the river, stood the tree of life, producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
- ↩Rev.22.14 — Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that their right may be over the tree of life, and that they may enter the city through the gates.
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