Illumination from the "Liber Scivias" showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe and secretary
Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God. Hildegard of Bingen
Readings:
Psalm 104:25-34
Sirach 43:1-2,6-7,9-12,27-28
John 3:16-21
PRAYER
O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Please go read It's Margaret's post on Hildegard. It's beautiful.
UPDATE: More lovely music on the feast day of Hildegard from Tobias Haller.
Hildegard's words from the Lectionary.
Image from Wiki.
Since we're on things medieval, may I repost this piece, that I put up yesterday afternoon on your "Church Militant" post, but later pulled as detracting from the seriousness of that post?
ReplyDeleteMay I recommend to people a new - as of July - blog, "Medieval Ecclesiastical Art". It is run by Allan Barton, deacon in the diocese of Lincoln and medieval art historian. His extensive medieval church art site on Flickr - linked through clicking on any scan on his web site - has been a source of joy to me for some time, separated as I am from my English Anglican roots. How many of you, I wonder, are familiar with the pleasures of the suspended pyx? And no, we are not drifting into the Diocese Of Wenchoster! Hope that the appropriately-inclined among us will appreciate this site as I do.
http://medieval-church-art.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
Of course, Lapin. I was pleased to have the address of the site, and I added it to the blog friends list.
ReplyDeleteThank you Grandmère Mimi. As is often the case I would have missed a wonderful feast day were it not for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the image and thought about one of the Greats of our faith. So glad she is coming to be better known -- largely through the efforts of Episcopalians! (The RCs honor her but she isn't formally canonized, in spite of the papal recognition of her writings.) Looks like the feather on the breath of God has hit the glass ceiling. Fortunately, we Episcopalians are busy opening windows.
ReplyDeleteOr could it be that she hasn't come through with the miracles yet? Thank God for Episcopalians!
ReplyDeleteCould be it. Tho' as far as I'm concerned, her music and her vision are miracles enough...
ReplyDeleteSaid mass today and remembered Hildegard at the altar.
ReplyDeleteThank you Grandmere for joining (and linking) in the prayer!
Margaret, you're quite welcome.
ReplyDeleteWell, part of it, Tobias, is this woman! had the audacity to stand up to the abbot in their dual monastery and insist on keeping a dead man who had repented - but not to a man - of his sins in Holy ground.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they ever quite forgave her for that one - and for being remembered, while the abbot was largely forgotten!
Patricia Routledge made a delightful Hildegard in a video I got at the Abbey of the Holy Spirit in Conyers.
And, as far as I can tell, she invented V-8!
ReplyDelete:D
Invented V-8?
ReplyDelete