R251: Nonnenkonvent von Zwiefalten an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Greeting and Praise
The sisters of Zwiefalten address Hildegard with joyful praise for the divine grace and splendor God has shown her.
Sisters in Zwiefalten. To Hildegard. Hildegard, illumined by the special grace of the divine nature! The humble assembly of the sisters of Zwiefalten. We rejoice in the gifts received from heaven, and we are enriched by them. His almighty power has glorified you wonderfully through divine mercy. He has raised you from the fragile mass of clay and taken care to fill you with the treasures of his grace in a new order.1 Therefore we rejoice in your splendor!
Commendation and Petition
The sisters commend themselves to Hildegard's prayers and humbly ask for her admonishing guidance back from negligence to amendment, closing with a blessing in Christ.
And we humbly entrust ourselves and all that we have to your prayers. We also ask your kindness that, as you press on toward the divine vision, you would direct your admonishing words toward us, and how we should return from the path of negligence to the path of amendment. Do not neglect to show these things to us. May your love stand strong in Christ.
Read the original Latin
Sorores in zvvifilda. hildegardi. Hildigardi speciali gratia diuinitatis illustratę! humilis zvvifildensium sororum cetus. in acceptis celitus donis amplificari. Omnipotentiam suam diuina clementia mirabiliter in uobis glorificauit. quam de fragili massa assumptam thesauris gratię suę nouo ordine adimplere curauit. Uestrę itaque claritati congaudemus!
nosque nostraque omnia uestris orationibus suppliciter commendamus. Rogamus etiam pietatem uestram ut cum diuinę uisioni insistitis. commonitoria uerba ad nos dirigatis. et quomodo a uia negligentię ad uiam correctionis redire debeamus. nobis ostendere non negligatis. Ualeat in christo uestra dilectio.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin quam...assumptam could refer either to Hildegard (acc. f. sg.) or to clementiam; the participial phrase is rendered with reference to Hildegard as the one taken up and filled with grace, which fits the epistolary address.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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