R94: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Abt W. von Bouzonville
A Vision of the Soul's Storm
Hildegard describes a waking vision of a turbulent place in the soul, marked by three colors of sin and longing, yet crowned by a rising light of grace.
Hildegard's response. In the vision that my soul frequently sees while awake, I gaze toward your place at the whirlwind, as if in some shifting of a cloud now glowing red, now black and murky. and that place greatly shaken. But in your soul I see three colors. The first, in the blackness of malice and anger. The second, in the smoke of a taste for uselessness. The third, in the likeness of a glowing dawn of benevolence and of sighing toward God with panting breath. Yet I see a glorious light ascending in some people from your whirlwind.
The Threatened Field of the Heart
Hildegard warns the abbot that God sustains the blessed field, but a black cloud of weariness and malice corrupts its fruit and blocks good work.
That is why God sustains that very place with his own aid. But you, good shepherd, look well at that field which has been blessed by God with the fullness of its fruits. And a black cloud comes over it that greatly harms it. And it makes its fruit worse than before. This is the weariness and the malice that are in the heart of the one who knows what is good and is able to carry it out. But in each part — that is, of weariness and of malice — it seizes hold of his mind, and so he is kept from good work. Son of God, flee from these things. And in the fruitful field, work in the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Work While It Is Day
Hildegard urges the abbot to labor in the fruitful field before the coming day, when opportunity will be gone.
Before that day comes, because you'll be able to accomplish more.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. In uisione qua anima mea frequenter uidet uigilans aspicio in loco tuo turbinem quasi in aliqua uicissitudine nubis rutilantis et nigrę ac turbidę! et ipsum locum ualde commotum. Sed in anima tua tres colores uideo. primum in nigredine maliciaę et iracundię. secundum in fumo gustus inutilitatis. tercium in similitudine rutilantis aurorę beniuolentię et suspirij ad deum anhelantis. Gloriosum autem lumen in aliquibus hominibus turbę tuę uideo ascendere!
unde deus ipsum locum in auxilio suo sustentat. Tu autem probe pastor agrum illum aspice qui in plenitudine fructuum a deo benedictus est. et super quem nigra nebula uenit quę eum ualde ledit. et fructum suum peiorem priore facit. hoc est tedium et malignitas quę in corde illius sunt qui bonum scit et perficere potest. sed in utraque parte scilicet tedij et malignitatis mentem suam occupat et sic a bono opere impeditur. Fili dei ista fuge. et in fructuoso agro igne spiritus sancti operare.
antequam dies illa ueniat quod plus operari non ualueris.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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