“Give to the Lord, you children of God, give to the Lord glory and praise.” Psalm 29:1
As you begin this retreat with Hildegard, try to become quiet within yourself by taking a few deep breaths. As she did, imagine yourself as a feather (or balloon or kite) lifted up by a gentle breeze. Remember a time in your life when you felt buoyed up by God’s love for you. How were you aware of God at that time?
For over 800 years Hildegard was not widely known outside of Germany, but today she is one of the best-known women mystics. The music which she composed for her nuns to sing in chapel can be heard at concerts and on CDs. She was truly alive in her day and remains alive for us today!
Hildegard’s contemporaries in the 12th century knew her as a Benedictine abbess, and also as theologian and preacher, poet and composer, healer and author. Her life and writings attract many people today because they speak to contemporary interests such as holistic living, care of the environment, and creation-centered spirituality. Hildegard’s message promotes everything that is life-giving and models the words, “The glory of God is a person fully alive.”
When she was 15, Hildegard decided to enter the monastery where she continued her education in prayer, sacred scripture, music, and good works.
When Hildegard was 38, she was elected by the sisters as abbess. Hildegard wanted her monastery to be an island of order, harmony, and intellectual life in the midst of a corrupt and chaotic world.
As her reputation for holiness grew, Hildegard attracted so many new members that the monastery became overcrowded. Although she met with opposition, she knew God wanted her to build a new monastery near Bingen where the nuns lived the Benedictine way of prayer and work in a balanced humane way. They lived in harmony with God, others, themselves, and nature.
Hildegard promoted the advancement of women in society and in the Church, then and now. She spoke to a patriarchal culture and a male-dominated Church and proclaimed the will of God to popes, bishops, and heads of state. Some of them took her words of wisdom to heart! Hildegard challenged women to reflect on their experiences and to exercise their creativity through music, art, preaching, organizing.
Because of her deep mysticism and prophetic commitment to justice, Hildegard saw the potential for global religious ecumenism even in her day, eight centuries ago. In a sense she anticipates the ecological and ecumenical movements of today. She awakens people to the sacredness of the earth and their responsibility for preserving it. In pointing out the relationship among religion, art, and science, her ideas foreshadowed the new cosmology of the 21st century. One of her short poetic meditations speaks of this unity:
I am the one whose praise echoes on high.
(Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality, edited by Marilyn Sewell, Beacon Press, 1991, p.252.)
I adorn all the earth.
I am the breeze
that nurtures all things green…
I am the rain
coming from the dew
that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life…
Read this poem slowly, letting your imagination conjure up, one by one, all these images from nature. Let yourself feel the breeze, smell the rain, laugh with the greenness, yearn for the good. Become more alive in God’s presence!
From the age of three Hildegard had experienced visions of light but had not spoken of them to anyone or realized that they were unusual until she told her spiritual guide and mentor. After Hildegard became abbess, her visions became more frequent and urgent. Reluctantly, she spoke of them to her confessor who told her to write them down.
In her visions Hildegard saw that the source of life, like that of all creation, is an overflowing of God’s light and love. Her spirituality puts her and all Christians in touch with the wonder of creation. (It is interesting that her spirituality of the early 12th century redates by centuries all the new studies in science and cosmology which recognize light as the source of all energy.)
Hildegard recorded a series of visions describing the relationship between God, humanity, and the cosmos. Her imagery is similar to that found in the Old Testament book of Wisdom. These visions reveal her views on the human person and the relationship between God and humans in creation. She had visions also about the incarnation and redemption, and the church. Central to her spirituality was her belief that human nature is good as is all of creation. She saw sin as a distortion of that goodness.
In her imagination Hildegard heard God say, “I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows. I gleam in the waters. I burn in the sun, moon, and the stars. With every breeze, as with invisible light that contains everything, I awaken everything to life…I am the breeze that nurtures all things green. I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life” (Scivias, [p.xx). Hildegard saw the whole of creation as fully alive.
Hildegard’s teachings gave an original and balanced view of the universe. She showed that human nature–the rhythms of the mind and body–were an echo of the greater rhythms of the natural world such as the rhythm of the ocean waves beating against rocks of the shore. She loved the color green and used it to describe the good life. Viriditas (greening), she called it.
Hildegard saw greening power at work in so many ways, especially in the actions of the Holy Spirit moving over the earth, causing all things to flourish. What is dry and barren and lifeless can be restored by the return of greening power and moisture. Greenness brings freshness and life to what is stale and lifeless.
This greenness included herbs which she recognized for their healing powers. When her sisters became ill, she was able to treat many of their illnesses with medicinal herbs. Her knowledge of herbal remedies was so extensive that many people came to her to be healed. Her books on herbs are available and still of value today.
Centuries before the current interest in holistic living, Hildegard was fascinated by the healing of the body. She learned how each part of the body functions and tried to explain the workings of the body according to her understanding. She was known far and wide as a healer. She encouraged the nuns of her monastery to live not only lives of prayer and work, but also to live in as healthy a way as possible in order to be in harmony with God and themselves.
Hildegard often suffered from serious illness, perhaps severe migraine headaches, when she delayed doing what she knew God was asking of her. When she complied with God’s will for her, she recovered. Some scientific reseachers have speculated that her visions may have been associated with the vivid colors and shapes of migraine attacks. What is amazing is that she could use even her headaches in her prayer!
Like all mystics, Hildegard served others with compassion and authenticity. She welcomed anyone in need who came to her monastery for physical or spiritual healing. She models for all contemporary christians how to make holistic use of intelligence, imagination, and creativity. For her, earth was a home and a source of delight. She believed that every human being should assume co-creative responsibility with God for the well-being of the earth.
How does your own prayer include concern for the earth and its well-being? How can gardening or care for plants be a prayer? How can a concern for global warming be part of your prayer?
Hildegard was a woman prodigiously alive–and prodigiously creative. This nun–prophet, visionary, poet, musician, healer, and leader–taught about many things just through what she said about her music, the music which her nuns in the monastery sang every day.
Here are her words: “Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds and silences—terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle—must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God.…”
After listening to Hildegard’s words (or listening to her music if you have CDs of the Anonymous Four), you may recognize even more the need for greenness in your life or for the radiance of insights like Hildegard’s. This will be the glory of God–in you fully alive!