An Abbess to Hildegard
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Neuss (St. Quirin)
An Abbess to Hildegard Before 1173 Recognizing that her community has fallen away from its pristine ideals, the abbess asks for Hildegard's advice and prayers.
To Hildegard, beloved lady and mother, N., abbess (although unworthy) of the sisters at Neuss. Please accept this trifling prayer and service offered with complete devotion.
Because we have no doubt, blessed lady, that you have heard it noised abroad concerning our condition, how we have fallen back into our early state and, alas, abandoned our aspirations, we are all the more earnestly and insistently beseeching your prayers, so that we may be made aware for God's sake why our erratic spirit has been so burdened that we are buffeted here and there by various impulses and are forced to endure such distress.
We are fully aware that God is "terrible in his counsels over the sons of men"
[Ps 65.5], and so, fearing the inscrutable (though not unjust) judgments of His chastisement, we commit fully the matter of our soul to you, whom we trust more than any other human being, and to your venerable sisters. We also long with our whole heart to receive a written response from you.
Farewell.
177r(?) Hildegard to the Abbess Before 1173 If this letter is indeed in answer to the preceding, Hildegard offers the general advice of penitence and compassion.
O servant of God, run in the circle of the sun in the zeal of your heart, and sigh to God for your sins. Also, do good works before your day sets when you can no longer work [cf. John 9.4]. Heed that steward who was accused before his master and who lowered the amounts in his account book of those who were in debt to his master [cf. Luke 16. Iff].