R219: Priester O. an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
A Mother Abandoned by Her Children
A priest addresses Hildegard as beloved mother, lamenting that her spiritual children are left without nourishment or care.
A certain priest. To Hildegard. To Hildegard, beloved mother! Brother. O. The service of filial love. O beloved mother, what will the little ones do! They have no one who would offer them milk.✦
Prayer Blocked and the Church Wounded
The letter describes how prayer is hindered and the Church is wounded by schism, leaving the faithful without consolation.
Children are asking for bread, and there's no one to break it for them. The sun has also set a cloud against itself, so that prayer may not pass through. What will a weakened person do, seeking a remedy for salvation, and finding no help for consolation? The Church has been wounded by schism.
The Sword Piercing the Body
The priest points prophetically to the spreading division in the Church, from head to body, with no healing, and asks Hildegard what she sees.
And a word of division. Look — here! Look — there! What is about to happen at the head.1 It has already spread through the body!2 And there is no healing. Where this sword has pierced.✦3 What then do you say, honored mother?4
Draw Near to the Sleeping Physician
The priest urges Hildegard to seek the seemingly absent physician, enter where access is limited, and cry out to the Lord on behalf of those standing outside.
Do you think it can be found? the one whom it is absolutely necessary to seek. So long do I think the physician is absent! while I feel the rot of the wound. Draw near, therefore, to the one who cannot be reached. Go inside, where access is not open to everyone. Say to your beloved, 'Why are you sleeping, Lord?' Outside they stand, seeking you.
Wounded in Love, Called to Heal
Hildegard's soul is confirmed as wounded by love rather than dissension, and she is asked to pray for unity, then return to share what God reveals, as the priest confesses his own divided and wounded soul.
Your soul, wounded by love, it is not. But it has been struck by the sword of dissension! May the healing of your prayer come to them, so that they may be one.✦ And when you have poured out your prayer before the eyes of the Lord, return to us. And announce to us what you have recognized within. How much he has granted. Whose discourse is with the simple. I too have a soul — foul, divided by many journeys, and wounded!
A Plea for Intercession and Guidance
The priest asks for Hildegard's prayers, confesses his attacks by evil spirits, requests her written counsel, and closes with farewell.
for whom you may wish to pray to God. I beg you most earnestly with love. For I am attacked so often by evil spirits, as secretly as they openly, who harass me greatly and want to lead me astray! And I ask what you think about these things, that you report to me through your writings. Farewell.
Read the original Latin
Quidam sacerdos. hildegardi. Hildigardi dilectę matri! frater. O. filialis dilectionis obsequium. O mater dilecta quid facient infantes! nullum qui eis lac prebeant habentes.
Paruuli petunt panem. et non est qui frangat eis. Sol quoque opposuit sibi nubem. ne pertranseat oratio. Quid faciet homo languidus. querens salutis remedium! et non inueniens consolationis auxilium? Ecclesia scismate uulnerata est.
et uerbum diuisionis. ecce hic. ecce illic! quod futurum est in capite. iam precurrit in corpore! et non est sanitas. ubi gladius iste pertransiuit. Quid ergo dicis mater honorata?
Putas inueniri potest. quem queri omnino necesse est. Tamdiu medicum deesse puto! dum uulneris putredinem sentio. Accede ergo ad inaccessibilem. intra ubi non patet omnibus accessus. dic dilecto tuo quare obdormis domine. foris stant querentes te.
anima tua uulnerata caritate non est. sed dissensionis gladio percussa est! ueniat eis sanitas orationis tuę ut sint unum. Et cum effuderis orationem tuam coram oculis domini ad nos regredere. et quid intus agnoueris nuncia nobis. quantum ille concesserit. cuius sermocinatio cum simplicibus est. Habeo etiam ego animam fedam multis itineribus diuisam atque uulneratam!
pro qua deum orare uelis. caritatem tuam deuotissime exoro. Nam a malignis spiritibus multociens tam occulte quam aperte impugnor qui me plurimum fatigant et seducere uolunt! et quid de his sentias rogo ut per scripta tua mihi renuncies. Valete.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Thess.2.7 — but we became infants among you, as when a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children
- ↩Luke.2.35 — and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
- ↩John.17.21 — that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you; that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.
Notes
- 1 ↩'Quod' read as relative pronoun 'what/which'; could also function as conjunction 'because.' 'Capite' (head) likely refers to the head of the Church or a leader — the sense is that division is imminent at the top.
- 2 ↩'Iam precurrit' — the perfect tense with 'iam' conveys that the division has already run ahead, i.e., it has spread before one could prevent it. 'Corpore' likely refers to the body of the Church.
- 3 ↩'Ubi' read as local 'where' rather than temporal 'when.' 'Gladius iste' — 'this sword' — likely refers to the sword of division or judgment.
- 4 ↩'Mater honorata' — 'honored mother' — is a vocative address, likely to Hildegard herself or to the Church personified as mother.
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