Home | Hildegard of Bingen | Julian of Norwich | Teresa of Avila | Prayers of the Mystics | Additional Resources








Excepts from Hildegard of Bingen's Writings

Why God utters new mysteries by the mouth of an unlearned person - "But now the Catholic faith wavers among the nations and the Gospel limps among the people; and the mighty books in which the excelling doctors had summed up knowledge with great care go unread from shameful apathy, and the food of life, which is the divine Scriptures, cools to tepidity.For this reason, I now speak through a person who is not eloquent in the Scriptures or taught by an earthly teacher; I Who Am speak through her of new secrets and mystical truths, heretofore hidden in books, like one who mixes clay and then shapes it to any form he wishes. (Scivias, pg. 499)    
 
Analogy of a tree to the soul - "The soul in the body is like sap in a tree, ad the soul's powers are like the form of a tree...The intellect in the soul is like the greenery of the tree's branches and leaves, the will like its flowers, the mind like its bursting firstfruits, the reason like the perfected mature fruit, and the senses like its size and shape.  And so a person's body is strengthened and sustained by the soul.  Hence, O human, understand what you are in your soul, you who lay aside your good intellect..." (Scivias, pg. 124.)
 
God conquered the ancient serpent by His Son's humility...-
"By giving His body and blood to sanctify those who believe; and so the Heavenly Father delivered Him up to the Passion for the redemption of the peoples and conquered the ancient serpent through Him in humility and justice. He did not want His Son to conquer by His power and strength, for God is just and does not will iniquity, as the Psalmist declares..." ((Scivias, pg. 239.)
 
Vision Four (book 1) -
"And behold! I saw on the earth people carrying mild in earthen vessels and making cheeses from it; and one part was thick, and from it strong cheeses were made; and one part was thing, and from it bitter cheeses were formed. And I saw the image of a woman who had a perfect human form in her womb....And I saw that many whirlwinds assialed one of these globes in a body and bowed it down to the ground; but, gaining back its strength and bravely raising itself up, it resisted them boldy..." (Scivias, pg. 109.)
 
On the relationship between man and woman -
"When God looked upon the human countenance, God was exceedingly pleased. For had not God created humanity according to the divine image and likeness? For humanity is God's complete work....But the human species still needed a support that was a match for it. So God gave the first man a helper in the form of woman, who was man's mirror image, and in her the whole human race was present in a latent way. God did this with manifold creative power, just as God had produced in great power the first man. Man and woman are in this way so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other. Without woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman...Neither of them could henceforth live without the other...And thus the human species sits on the judgment seat of the world. It rules over all creation.       (Fox, 1987. pp.122-23)



Experience the mystery...

Created by Kimberly S. Conway (c) 2004.
This site is continuously underconstruction.  If you have any suggestions or ideas please make such suggestion in the guestbook.  The creator of this site does not speak for the validity of information found when following links from this website to another.