Hildegard to an Abbot
1 72 The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen St. Nabor
Hildegard to an Abbot 1159-70 Another letter in response apparently to a query about resigning one's office. The abbot had also apparently asked something about the schism in the Church.
Caretakers of gardens should have advisors and counselors who carefully gather up the precepts of the law, and who do not look behind their backs at the ram
[cf. Gen 22.13] but keep their eyes on the sacrifice present before them, which the Church celebrates daily, not as an allegory, but as the very sacrifice of the Son of God Himself, because He suffered in His Passion, and taught His Passion*
[cf. Matt 26.26ff], If you do not have a fruitful tree and matter necessary for life in your discernment of God's precepts for mankind, then withdraw to other gardens and offer them assistance in all their needs, but not so that you conceal the day in you and make yourself the night, lest your Lord find fault with you.
The Lord does not bid me speak concerning the schism in the Church, but He brandishes His sword and He bends His bow [cf. Ps 7.13], because it will quickly come to an end by the goodness of good men.
St. Thomas an der Kyll(?)
Hildegard to the Abbess Elisabeth 1175(?) Hildegard advises moderation and discretion in subduing this body of flesh.
In a true vision I saw and heard these words: O daughter of God, you who out of love for God call me mother, poor little form of a woman that I am, learn to have discretion, which in all things celestial and terrestrial is the mother of all the virtues. For, through it, the spirit and the body are governed, and they are fed with proper restraint.
Let a person who, with sighs of penitence, is mindful of the sins she has committed in thought, word, and deed through the deception of the devil, em-
The Letters
brace her mother Discretion and subject herself to her. And in true humility and obedience let her make amends for her sinful ways according to the counsel of her superiors. For just as the fruit of the earth is damaged by unseasonable rain, and just as unplowed ground produces noxious weeds rather than wholesome vegetation, so when a person labors beyond the capacity of her body, she is rendered ineffectual because of her indiscriminate toil and abstinence of spirit, for all the works of holy Discretion have been damaged in her.
When that blackest of birds, the devil, realizes that a person wants to quell illicit desire and cease from sin, then, like a serpent in his hole, he entwines himself into that person's fasting, prayers, and abstinence, and to deceive her he says:
Your sins cannot be wiped out unless you crush your body underfoot with grief and tears and other immeasurable exertions so that it dries up totally. Then, that person, living without hope or joy, often loses her sense of perception and is seized by serious infirmity, and in this way is robbed of the reward for her sanctity by the deception of the devil. Moreover, she leaves uncompleted those works she had undertaken without discretion, and so her last state will be worse than the first [cf. Luke 11.26].
But a person who is bound to obedience, following the example of Jesus Christ, must be especially careful not to choose anything according to her own will, trusting more in her own self than in the good counsel of others, for then she will be overcome by that pride which fell from heaven because she wishes to be better than other good people since she believes that only what she herself has accomplished is good and holy. A person can teach herself that she ought not to give in to her own will, since she consists of two natures—body and soul— and they are continually at odds with one another, for what pleases the one displeases the other. Since this is the way it is, how could she consent to her will— a property of the body—and depend on it for the safety of her soul? A person who out of fear and love of God has despised her own will, and has subjected herself to the precepts and doctrine of the Rule and to her superiors by offering examples of good works to others in true humility, such a one makes herself a living tabernacle in the heavenly Jerusalem [cf. Heb 12.22], and the Holy Spirit rests upon her.
O blissful soul, heed these words, you who have run swiftly and bravely like a hart to the fountain of waters, that is, to the living God [cf Ps 41.2—3]: May the mighty King preserve you in that fortitude, and bring you joyfully to eternal bliss.
Amen.