VISIO TERTIA, cap. IV
The Circle of Holiness and the Soul's Fortification
The upper fire's circle surrounding the firmament and driving the planets symbolizes divine holiness fortifying the soul that clings to God.
But you see that in the upper fire a circle might appear, which surrounds the entire firmament on every side, and from it a wind going out compels the seven planets from west to east to go against the revolution of the firmament, since in divine power is the integrity of holiness, which fortifies the inner soul of man on every side, the soul that joins itself to God.
The Struggle Between Grace and the Flesh
The Holy Spirit's gifts stir the sluggish soul toward justice, yet the body's fleshly desires often resist God's breathing.
And so from that very breathing out coming — the mystical gifts of the Holy Spirit — it makes contact with him where he begins to grow sluggish in weariness, so that he might shake off his sluggishness and rise up vigorously toward justice; yet this is often grievous to the human spirit, because the body, placed in him by divine arrangement so that it might obey him, he can scarcely sometimes bring to obey, since it more often consents to fleshly desires as though in its own dwelling, and so the breathing out of God's gifts often resists the will of man.
From Growth to Unshakable Perfection
The breath of holiness gradually perfects the soul until, founded on Christ and filled with the seven gifts, it stands unshaken amid temptations.
And these, like the other aforementioned winds, does not send its blasts into the world, but only tempers the course of the planets, as was said, because the breathing out proceeding from the integrity of holiness, like the other virtues that turn a man given over to the age from evil to good, does not show itself, since when a man begins to do good through the gift of God, he does not yet exist in the fullness of holiness as perfect; but at length when he has truly arrived at their perfection, the breathing out of holiness holds him in the full and perfect gifts of the Holy Spirit, and permits him to waver neither here nor there. For as a column of holiness, founded below upon Christ, is raised on high toward the heavenly things, so, with Christ holding him, upon whom the seven good gifts of the Holy Spirit rested, shaken by the storms of various temptations he will not be able to rush to ruin, and he will say how, with me inspiring, it was written through Habakkuk.
Habakkuk's Witness to the Same Truth
The words of Habakkuk are set forth to confirm this meaning, with an exposition to follow.
The words of the prophet Habakkuk are set alongside to declare this same significance, along with an exposition of them.✦
Read the original Latin
Sed et vides quod in superiori igne circulus appareat, qui totum firmamentum ubique circumcingit, de quo ventus egrediens septem planetas ab occidente ad orientem contra circumvolutionem firmamenti ire compellit, quoniam in divina potentia integritas sanctitatis est, quem interiorem spiritum hominis ex omni parte munit, qui se Deo conjungit. Unde et de ipsa exspiratio veniens, mystica sancti Spiritus dona illum ubi in taedio torpescere incipit, tangere facit quatenus a torpore se excutiat, et ad justitiam strenue exsurgat; quod tamen multoties grave spiritui hominis est, quia corpus, in quo per divinam dispositionem positus manet ut sibi obediat, vix interdum perducere potest, quoniam illi saepius tanquam habitaculo suo in carnalibus desideriis consentit, sicque exspiratio donorum Dei multoties voluntati hominis resistit. Et istae sicut caeteri praefati venti in mundum flatus suos non emittit, sed tantum cursum planetarum, ut praedictum est, temperat, quia praemonstrata exspiratio ex integritate sanctitatis procedens, sicut caeterae virtutes quae hominem saeculo deditum a malo ad bonum convertunt, se non manifestat, quoniam cum homo per donum Dei bona facere incipit, nondum in plenitudine sanctitatis perfectus existit; sed tandem cum ad perfectionem eorum veraciter pervenerit, exspiratio sanctitatis in plenis et perfectis sancti Spiritus donis ipsum tenet, nec hac, nec illac eum vacillare permittit. Nam ut columna sanctitatis inferius supra Christum fundata, superius ad coelestia erigitur, sic in Christo eum tenente, super quem septem bona sancti Spiritus requieverunt, tempestatibus variarum tentationum quassatus ruere non poterit, dicetque quemadmodum, me inspirante, per Habacuc scriptum est.
Verba Habacuc prophetae ad eamdem significationem declarandam apposita et expositio eorum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Hab.3.19 — The LORD, my God, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's and causes me to walk upon my heights. For the director of music. With my stringed instruments.
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