Advent Day 17: Hildegard of Bingen
We are living sparks flying off the fire of God's love
Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.
Advent Day 17: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
One of the most outstanding resumes in history belongs to medieval German mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Composer of hymns, philosopher, theologian, preacher, writer, herbalist and healer, Hildegard was a renaissance woman long before the actual Renaissance. And she did it all while running a monastery, engaging in church politics, corresponding with royalty, and managing the mystical visions that were both the source of her spiritual creativity and a scourge to her physical health.
Hildegard’s visions began when she was three years old, continuing throughout her life. In these
reflections of living light, a fiery light, flashing intensely, came from the open vault of heaven and poured through my whole brain. Like a flame that is hot without burning, it kindled all my heart and all my breast, just as the sun warms anything on which its rays fall.
These visions, which caused her great physical pain, revealed to her God’s love as
living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity…(and) manifest in every creature.
In an age where the doctrine of original sin reigned supreme, Hildegard offered an alternative doctrine: original goodness.
What she didn’t offer—at least for a long time—were her visions which she kept secret, fearful of being thought insane. Only after entering the Benedictine abbey in Disibodenberg as a teenager did she finally share them with an anchoress named Jutta. After Jutta died in 1136 and Hildegard was elected to lead the abbey, the visions became so frequent and intense Hildegard finally told her confessor who ordered her to write them down.
As a woman, Hildegard was afraid she wouldn’t be taken seriously—or worse, charged with heresy. So, she reached out to Bernard of Clairvaux, the mystical rock star of the age. Hildegard’s life-affirming revelations so resonated with Bernard that he passed them on to the pope who also approved.
With the pope and Bernard in her corner, Hildegard entered a new chapter in her life. Her days as an anonymous Rhineland nun were over. She soon emerged as an energetic spiritual innovator—one not afraid to take on the powers-that-be when necessary.
In contrast to the secrecy of the first four decades of her life, Hildegard devoted the next four decades to sharing her visions far and wide. The Truth, as she experienced it, she described in sensual, earthy detail. To Hildegard, humans were living sparks flying off the fire of God’s love and rays of His splendor. Every creature was
a glittering, glistening mirror of Divinity. Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world—everything is hidden in you.
In an age where every aspect of religious experience was strictly controlled and managed by priests and bishops, Hildegard not only encouraged people to seek their own way, she claimed there was no other way to approach God if one hoped to live a genuine spirituality.
We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.
Hildegard’s go-it-alone spirituality didn’t go down easy with everyone. Nor did her criticism of the influence of money and privilege in monastic life. Several times, church superiors attempted to clamp down on her, most significantly when she petitioned to leave the abbey where she’d lived nearly all her life in order to start a new monastery committed to poverty and service. After her abbot declined her proposition, Hildegard went over his head and appealed directly to the archbishop who granted his approval.
While such insubordination could be grounds for excommunication, Hildegard had enough fans, from the halls of the Vatican to the royal courts of Europe, that she was granted her wish and allowed to continue with her work. In addition to writing this included concocting herbal medicines, studying the nature of the Rhineland, composing music, and mounting extensive preaching tours.
Today, Hildegard is recognized in Germany as the founder of scientific natural history; her chants and hymns are the most recorded in the history of sacred music; and her love of the earth, along with her warnings about the consequences of not caring properly for it, means she is considered by many as the original ecologist.
No matter through what medium she conveyed her message, it was all in service of an invitation she found in Psalm 34 and set to music…an invitation as simple as it was—and still is—radical:
Come taste and see that the Lord is good.
Hildegard died on September 17, 1179 at the age of eighty-one.
Practice
Psalm 34 was one of Hildegard’s favorites. Read it here, slowly and with intention. Don’t think about the words as much as try to let them just soak into you. The psalms have been spoken for thousands of years, including by your ancestors. As you read, see if you can feel yourself as a link in that long chain. If you like, go through the psalm a second time, this time reading it aloud. Then sit quietly for at least five minutes. If you still have time when you’re done, consider journaling about what came up for you during this meditation.
Bonus
St. Louis-based spiritual (and theatre) director Kelley Weber wrote about Hildegard in a recent post for her wonderful newsletter A Spiral Space. In her post she introduces readers to the English group Sinfonye who has recorded an enchanting album of Hildegard’s music. Visit A Spiral Space to have a listen.
Upcoming Holiday Happenings at Life In The City
Dec. 18, 11:15 am: Our regular Sunday service.
Dec. 21, 7:30 pm: Blue Christmas, an intimate service for the longest night of the year.
Dec. 23, 7:00 pm: Our annual Christmas Eve-Eve service.
Dec. 25, 11:15 am: Celebrate Christmas morning with your church family.
Jan 1, 11:15 am: A quiet, contemplative service to welcome 2023.
Feedback
This is a first draft of a book that will go to publishers in 2023. If you spot typos or have suggestions, leave them in the comments below or email Greg Durham at greg@lifeinthecityaustin.org.
Catch Up On Recent Posts
Read the Introduction to The Heart Moves Toward Light: Advent With The Mystics, Saints and Prophets.
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Thanks for the shout out friend! Hildegard powers activate. ❤️❤️