R28: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Günther von Henneberg
Awakening to the Inner Light
Hildegard calls the soul to hear the Holy Spirit's inner admonition, warning against self-sabotage and recalling God's mercy toward the lost.
Hildegard. O Light of highest inspiration! O man, she speaks to you. The Holy Spirit's admonition rises up within you. Don't cut yourself off from it through the evil custom of your deeds! For God seeks in you what He once intended: to bring back the lost sheep.✦ When He has wiped away the crimes of men.✦ And the ancient deceiver is confounded!
The Watcher at the Window
God watches through the windows, and the soul must not sever itself from divine admonition lest it face God's chastisement.
When the bravest warrior overcame him, God watches you through the windows!1 For he is devout and merciful.2 Let no one mock this! through any opinion of his own will.3 Listen. Do not cut this cause of God's admonition away from yourself.4 Lest God strike you with his own scourges!
Rising from Darkness
The soul, mocked by hostile forces and enveloped in darkness, is urged to rise quickly and build in heavenly things.
Since in its zeal it wants to cast down this hostile cause, because its companions through their associates mock it in its display. Hence it brandishes the bow of its admonition! showing that no one can resist it. Hence, you who are enveloped in deep darkness, rise quickly after ruin and build in heavenly things! so that the dark and foul may be ashamed in your exaltation, when you rise from your darkness. because your soul scarcely lives on account of your works.
The Dawn Within
The soul glimpses another life through a figure, as purpose shines like dawn, and is told to escape the heaviness of twisted desires.
You see, as it were, through a figure, toward another life! That purpose shines within you like the dawn of light.✦5 Your mind sifts and shakes itself out in great torments.6 Whenever your rich, heavy nature weighs you down with twisted desires.7 Escape this heaviness.8 Listen, O man. A certain man had a land that showed great power within itself.✦ when the plough turns it up.
The Garden of Spices
A parable of land transformed into a garden of healing spices leads to a call to choose what is more useful, grounded in the foundation of heavenly Jerusalem.
And so it brought forth much seedling growth, and fruit that was sown in the very same soil. Then this man was pleased to make a garden of spices in that land. And in it spices were to grow, with the sweetest fragrance, for the healing of wounds and scars. And that land was made better than it had been before. Now you—O man—choose! Whatever in these two things is more useful to you— For the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem was first laid from these very stones that had been wounded in great falls.
Stones of the Heavenly City
Rough stones defiled by vice become the foundation of God's city, and the soul is urged to flee worldly uncleanness and be like precious gems.
And defiled in the scars of vices, who afterwards suppress their own crimes in penance. Maker of the world! this foundation he has placed first from rough and unpolished stones. And these stones, they sustain the whole city of God. So then, flee the wantonness of this world in the shipwreck of uncleanness. And be like the sardius and like the topaz.
The Spring of Eternal Life
The soul, swift as a stag, is invited to drink the pure spring and live forever.
and swift as a stag, drink up with your tongue the purest spring!✦ and you will live forever.✦
Read the original Latin
Hildegardis. Lux summę inspirationis! o homo tibi dicit. Admonitionem spiritus sancti quę in te ascendit. non abscidas a te per malam consuetudinem operum tuorum! quia deus requirit in te quod olim adtendit perditam ouem reducere. quando crimina hominum abstersit. Et antiquus illusor confusus est!
cum eum fortissimus bellator superauit. Deus per fenestras aspicit ad te! quia pius et misericors est. Hoc nullus homo derideat! per ullam opinionem uoluntatis suę. Audi. Hanc causam admonitionis dei noli abscidere a te. ne deus te percutiat per flagella sua!
quoniam uult in zelo suo hanc inimicabilem causam prosternere. quod sodales ipsius per socios suos ipsum in ostensione sua derident. Unde arcum admonitionis suę uibrat! demonstrans quia nullus ei resistere possit. Vnde tu homo qui multa nigredine inuolutus es. surge citius post ruinam et edifica in celestibus! ut nigri et sordidi erubescant in tua exaltatione cum surgis a nigredine tua. quia anima tua uix uiuit propter opera tua.
Tu enim aspicis quasi per figuram ad aliam uitam! quę intentio fulget in te sicut aurora lucis. Mens tua cribrat et excutit se in magnis tormentis. ubi pinguis natura te affligit in tortuosis desiderijs. Hunc humorem euade. Audi homo. Uir quidam terram habuit quę magnam uim in se ostendit. quando aratrum ipsam euertit.
ita quod multo germine protulit quemque fructum qui in ipsa seminabatur. Tunc placuit uiro huic ut in terra illa hortum aromatum faceret! et in eo crescerent aromata in suauissimo odore ad medicinam uulnerum et cicatricum. Et terra illa melior effecta est. quam prius fuisset. Nunc tu o homo elige! quid in his duabus partibus tibi utilius sit. Fundamentum enim celestis ierusalem positum est primum de istis lapidibus qui in magnis casibus uulnerati erant.
et in cicatricibus uiciorum polluti. qui postmodum crimina sua opprimunt in penitentia. Faber mundi! fundamentum istud primum de rugosis et impolitis lapidibus posuit. Et lapides isti! totam ciuitatem dei sustentant. Ideo fuge lasciuiam huius mundi in naufraugio immundicię. et esto similis sardio et similis topazio.
et uelox sicut ceruus haurire in lingua purissimum fontem! et uiues in eternum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.15.4-Luke.15.6;Matt.18.12-Matt.18.14 — Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? Luke.15.5 — And when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Luke.15.6 — And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Matt.18.12 — What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? Matt.18.13 — And if it happens that he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that have not gone astray. Matt.18.14 — So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
- ↩Ps.51.3 — Be gracious to me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
- ↩Isa.62.1 — For the sake of Zion I will not keep silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.
- ↩Luke.16.1 — And he also said to the disciples, 'There was a rich man who had a manager, and this man was reported to him for squandering his possessions.'
- ↩Ps.41.2;Ps.43.1 — Blessed is the one who has regard for the poor; in the day of trouble, the LORD delivers him. Ps.43.1 — Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.
- ↩John.6.51;John.10.28 — I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John.10.28 — I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — not forever — and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Notes
- 1 ↩Windows imagery suggests God's watchful gaze reaching into the soul; possibly echoing Song of Songs or Isaiah 62:11.
- 2 ↩Pius rendered as 'devout' rather than 'pious' to avoid modern associations with mere outward religiosity; the sense is one of faithful, God-ward disposition.
- 3 ↩Manuscript reads 'suę' (abbreviated or variant form); normalized to suus, genitive singular agreeing with voluntatis. The sense is 'of his own will' — i.e., any self-directed judgment or desire.
- 4 ↩Causam admonitionis dei carries a double sense: it is both the 'reason for' God's warning and the 'case' or 'plea' on which God admonishes. The translation preserves the sense of a divine summons not to be discarded.
- 5 ↩quę: relative pronoun whose antecedent is uncertain — likely intentio or possibly aliam uitam from the previous sentence. Chose intentio (purpose) as antecedent, which fits the visionary-prophetic register.
- 6 ↩cribrat et excutit se: the paired verbs suggest intense self-examination under spiritual trial. cribrat (sifts) is a rare verb; the image is of the mind as grain being shaken through a sieve.
- 7 ↩pinguis natura: literally 'fat/rich nature' — likely refers to the pull of bodily or natural appetite, the heaviness of unregenerate human nature. Rendered as 'rich, heavy nature' to capture both the materiality and the spiritual burden.
- 8 ↩humorem: literally 'moisture' or 'humor' — in medieval physiological language, an excess of bodily fluid causing sluggishness or temptation. Rendered as 'heaviness' to convey the spiritual sense without the obsolete medical framework.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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