Hildegard to the Abbess Sophia
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard to the Abbess Sophia About 1155(?) In this second letter to the abbess, Hildegard once again urges her not to give up her administrative duties, while at the same time acknowledging that she understands the anguish she is going through.
In the True Light I saw a fiery sphere like a wheel turning inside you. You are walking on a narrow path, looking to the sun, but, for all that, the winds of a cloud's instability will overshadow you because your mind wanders. You cry out: When will God set me free? And He will answer you, I will not forsake you [cf. Josh
1.5; Heb 13.5], but I want you to seize the net so that it is not torn, for if you cast it aside, it will turn down another way,1 and this would not be pleasing to God.
Now, rejoice in God [cf. Phil 3.1; 4.4] and live forever, because God loves you.
Note 1. The sense of this passage is not altogether clear. Is "seizing the net" an allusion to the gospels' "I will make you fishers of men," with the suggestion being that Sophia should govern her community effectively and not abdicate her administrative duties, lest her subordinates go astray?
Hildegard to Rumunda, a Lay Sister Before 1170 A letter of comfort to a lay sister who is having problems and doubts.
The Secret Light says: You are worn out, like a person cut off from the household of the One Who created you. But you will be called back from among the foreigners. Therefore, cease from your sins, for God has not sold you into perdition [cf. Baruch 4.6], but He has found you like the lost sheep that has been called back to life [cf. Matt 18.12ff; Luke 15.4ff].
Why do you have doubts as if you did not have salvation? Seek God, therefore, in the anxiety and anguish of your spirit, and you will live [cf. Ps 68.33;
Amos 5.4-6].