III. Responsum Reverentiae.
III. Responsum Reverentiae.
But again, from that troubled cloud, I heard a voice responding to this image: "If I knew all that the Creator made, what would I be?" For I would destroy what I did not make, nor create, nor give knowledge to, just as you, O wicked part, disturb everything. The mountains support me, and I walk in the valley plains, nor do they disdain me. I soar in the heights and in the depths, and I find pleasure in all that God has established; I do no harm to anyone, but I trample you like the mud on my shoes. For you will not have the more worthy part, because you inflict harm on everyone you can. > 5. But I saw a second image, one that had a childlike form, except that it lacked hair on its head and had a face and beard like an old man. And in the aforementioned darkness, it hung in a certain cloth, as if in a cradle, swaying this way and that, like it was moved by the wind. But I didn't see any other garments in it. And sometimes he raised himself from the same cloth, and sometimes he hid himself in that same cloth.
Read the original Latin
Sed iterum de praefata turbida nube audivi vocem huic imagini respondentem: < Si omnia noveram quae Creator fecit, quid essem? quod illa destruerem > quae non feci, nec creavi, nec quibus scientiam dedi, sicut tu, o pars iniqua, > omnia commoves.
Montes me sustinent, et in planitie Vallium ambulo, nec ipsi > contemnent me.
In supernis et in infimis volito, et omnia quae Deus constituit, > mihi placent, nec ulli injuriam facio, sed te ut lutum calceamentorum conculco. > Nam digniorem partem non habebis, quia omnibus quibus potes, injuriam in> fers. > 5.
Secundam autem imaginem vidi, puerilem formam habentem, excepto quod in capite capillis carebat, et quod faciem et barbam, ut senex vir, habebat.
Et in praedictis tenebris, in quodam panno, quasi in cunis pendebat, qui hac et illac, velut a vento, movebatur.
Sed alia indumenta in ea non videbam.
Et interdum ab eodem panno erexit se, et interdum in cumdem pannum abscondit se.
Liber Vitae Meritorum (Book of the Rewards of Life) companion
Examination is a habit, not an event
The free Chosen Portion app pairs daily readings from Hildegard with a fixed prayer rhythm
Hildegard's rhythm of naming a vice and answering it with virtue continues as short daily examen-style devotionals in the Chosen Portion app
- A weekly examen you can complete in 15 minutes using Hildegard's 35 pairs
- Daily readings from the full Book of the Rewards of Life, free in the app
- All six parts, translated into modern English, at no cost