R230: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Mönch V. von Soissons
Hildegard's Manner of Writing
Hildegard introduces her letter by describing how she writes through true vision, seeing, hearing, and unified knowing.
Hildegard's reply. In a true vision of the mysteries of God. I write by seeing. By hearing. And by knowing, in one and the same way.
The Cloud of Spiritual Inconstancy
Hildegard rebukes the recipient as a shifting cloud, slightly bright yet obscuring the divine light, requiring patient waiting.
But you, O person, are like a cloud that moves forward and then falls back.1 A cloud that is only slightly bright on each side! And through which the sun is nevertheless often obscured. And so it is waited for longer when it shines.
Turning from Useless Questions
Citing Psalm 73, Hildegard warns that those who turn from God to foreign, useless questions wither without vitality in Him.
And it is written: "See, those who distance themselves from you will perish." This is it: Those who have the day of good knowledge but they look toward the foreign questioning of what is useless. And at the varieties of darkness they do not seek help in reason, but they are withered in vain. Nor do they have any vitality in God.
Adam's Fall and the Call to Return
Recalling Adam's loss of innocence, Hildegard urges the monk to restore his mind to the good, seek God's fountain, and abandon useless causes.
For Adam, when he was full of the innocence and holiness that shone brightly, perished through the transgression of God's commandments. Because the crown of innocence—that most beautiful daughter of the king—has been cut off from him. Now restore your mind to what is good. and look upon the fountain of flowing water. and do not seek various causes in a foreign house. because every cause that is not useful will wither away. because it is not planted by God.
A Final Blessing and Prayer
Hildegard counsels purity of mind, detachment from excess labors, and steadfast direction toward God, promising her continual prayers.
May your mind be pure in God, hungry for God's justice, and set on the right path. And God will receive you. So then, the labors you have begun for God and the ones you continue to do— let them be enough for you. But your mind and your thoughts— direct them toward God as much as you can. I will always pour out my prayers to God for you.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. In uera uisione misteriorum dei. scribo uidendo. audiendo. et sciendo in uno modo. Tu autem o homo similis es nubi quę progreditur et regreditur. et quę in hac utraque parte aliquantulum lucida est! et per quam tamen sol sepius obnubilatur.
ita quod diutius expectatur quando luceat. Et scriptum est. Quia ecce qui elongant se a te peribunt. Hoc est. Qui diem bonę scientię habent. sed in alienam sciscitationem inutilitatis respiciunt. et in uarietates tenebrarum quę auxilium in racionalitate non querunt sed uane sunt arescunt. nec uiriditatem in deo habent.
Adam enim cum plenus innocentię sanctitatis fulgeret. in preuaricatione preceptorum dei perijt. cum diadema innocentię scilicet pulcherrimę filię regis ab eo abscisum est. Nunc mentem tuam ad bona restaura. et aspice in fontem aquę salientis. et diuersas causas in aliena domo non require. quoniam unaquęque causa quę utilis non est arescet. quoniam a deo plantata non est.
Mens tua pura sit in deo et in esurie iusticię dei et in recto itinere! et deus suscipiet te. Unde labores quos propter deum incepisti et quos facis. tibi sufficiant. Sed mentem tuam et cogitationes tuas. quantum potes ad deum dirige. Orationes meas ad deum semper pro te fundam.
Notes
- 1 ↩autem rendered as 'but' to capture the adversative force of the address; the cloud metaphor suggests spiritual inconstancy.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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