VISIO SECUNDA, cap. XXII
The Hedge Removed
God warns that the protective hedge around the unfaithful will be torn down and the vineyard left to thorns and drought.
"I will take away its hedge, and it will be plundered; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.✦ It will not be pruned or hoed; thorns and briers will grow over it. I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.✦
The One Who Refuses to See
Anyone who ignores creation's witness to God and blasphemously blames God for his own sins despises the Eternal and destroys all true knowledge of himself and the world.
This is plain to anyone with understanding: everyone who does not trust in God, who does not consider how God created him, but instead blames God as though God were at fault for his sins, as though God had not set right paths within him — who refuses to look at the rising and setting of the sun, the moon, and the stars that God placed in the sky, or at the wind with the air, or the earth with the waters, and the rest of the creatures, all of which God made for humanity so that through them one might recognize the dignity of one's own creation — this person despises me, who am without beginning and without end, and tears down all creation, and so knows neither creation nor himself rightly.✦
Abandoned to Strangers and Demons
God removes the sinner's defense, leaving him to be torn by strangers, crushed by demons, and cast out among beasts and dogs because he knew God less than the animals obey their nature.
And so I too will remove that person's defense, because he has no other helper, and strangers will tear him to pieces as he lives; I will break down his strength as well, and he will be crushed by demons, and in this way he will be abandoned by the good angels. For every bond of his desires will be taken away, and he will be thrown to the dogs and the wild beasts, because he has known me less than the animals have, since they do what they were created to do. Therefore he too will be trampled like dung, and forsaken by every happiness.✦
Pride That Bars the Inheritance
The proud soul, imitating the devil's desire for godlike likeness, is torn from heavenly glory by dissensions and fury, and left barren without the Holy Spirit's dew and grace.
But neither will he be enrolled among the number of God's children, nor will he be dug over by the hoe of faith for his sins, because he imitated the one who wanted to have the likeness of God — the one who proceeded from no one and is without end.✦ And so too, through pride, dissensions and rages and furies rise up in him, which tear him completely away from all the glory of the heavenly inheritance; and in this way, lacking the dew and grace of the Holy Spirit, he is turned to such barrenness that he brings forth no fruit of good works.
A Prayer Against Evil Knowledge
Just as one prays for God to humble cruel power, so one should ask God to overcome the evil knowledge within.
But just as a person seeks from God that the cruel power be brought low and that what is necessary be granted to him, so too let him ask from God that the evil knowledge within him be overcome.
The Winds of the Vision
The principal south wind appears as a lion's head in bright fire, flanked by two winds in the forms of a serpent and a lamb.
That's why the principal south wind is shown on the right side of the same image, like a lion's head in a circle of bright fire; and that's also why its two collateral winds are seen, one in the form of a serpent, the other in the form of a lamb's head.
Read the original Latin
« Auferam sepem ejus, et erit in direptionem, diruam maceriam ejus, et erit in conculcationem, et ponam eam desertam. Non putabitur, et non fodietur, et ascendent super eam vepres et spinae, et nubibus mandabo ne pluant super eam imbrem . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Omnis qui in Deum non confidit, nec attendit quomodo a Deo creatus sit, sed eum reprehendit tanquam in peccatis ipsius culpabilis sit, et quasi recta itinera in eo non constituerit, nec vult aspicere ortum et occasum solis et lunae ac stellarum, quas Deus in coelum posuit, nec ventum cum aere, nec terram cum aquis, et caeteris creaturis, quae omnia Deus propter hominem creavit, quatenus in omnibus his cognosceret ad quantum honorem creatus esset, me qui sine initio, et sine fine sum contemnit, atque omnem creaturam destruit, nec illam, nec seipsum perfecte cognoscit. Unde et ego auferam defensionem ejus, quoniam alium adjutorem non habet, et alieni a vita eum diripient, diruam quoque minutionem ipsius, et a daemonibus conteretur, et sic a bonis angelis deseretur. Nam omnis connexio concupiscentiarum illius auferetur, et canibus bestiisque distribuetur, quia minus quam animalia me cognovit, cum illa ut creata sunt faciant, quapropter etiam ut stercus conculcabitur, atque ab omni beatitudine deseretur. Sed et in numerum filiorum Dei non ponetur, nec sarculo fidei de peccatis suis evertetur, quia illum imitatus est, qui similitudinem Dei habere voluit, qui a nullo processit, et sine fine est. Et ideo quoque per superbiam insurgunt in eo dissensiones et irae, furores, qui eum omnino ab omni gloria supernae haereditatis scindunt, atque hoc modo Spiritus sancti rore et gratia carens, in tantam ariditatem vertitur, ut nullum fructum bonorum operum praeferat. Sed ut homo a Deo quaerit, quatenus horrida potestas sedetur, et ea quae sibi necessaria sunt concedantur, sic etiam a Deo postulet, ut mala scientia in ipso superetur
Quare principalis ventus australis in dextera parte ejusdem imaginis velut caput leonis in circulo lucidi ignis ostendatur; cur etiam duo collaterales venti ejus alter in serpentis, alter in figura capitis agni conspiciatur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.5.5-Isa.5.6 — And now I will make known to you what I am doing to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be for burning; I will break down its wall, and it will be for trampling. Isa.5.6 — I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and thorns and briers will grow up. And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
- ↩Isa.5.6 — I will make it a wasteland; it will not be pruned or hoed, and thorns and briers will grow up. And I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
- ↩Rom.1.20-Rom.1.21 — For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, being understood through the things that have been made: both his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse. Rom.1.21 — For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
- ↩Mark.5.13;Rev.22.15 — And he gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea — about two thousand of them — and they were drowned in the sea. Rev.22.15 — Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- ↩Isa.14.14 — I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" Close the quotation here so the transition to v.15 lands clearly.
Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) companion
Don't stop at Day 30
All 317 chapters live in the free Chosen Portion app, paced for daily reading
Hildegard's practice of daily attention to God's work in creation becomes a paced daily devotional through all ten visions in the Chosen Portion app
- One vision passage a day, readable in under 10 minutes
- The complete Book of Divine Works plus Hildegard's other major works, free
- Progress tracking so a 317-chapter classic actually gets finished