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| "Emerald Forest," Killarney National Park, Ireland. Image by Nicholas Raymond |
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A GREETING
The earth and everything on it—
the world and all who live in it—
belong to you, O God.
(Psalm 24:1)
A READING
You set springs gushing in ravines,
running down between the mountains,
supplying water for wild animals
and attracting the thirsty wild donkeys;
the birds of the air make their nests by these waters
and sing among the branches.
From your palace you water the highlands
until the ground is sated by the fruit of your work;
you make fresh grass grow for cattle
and plants for us to cultivate
to get food from the soil—
wine to cheer our hearts, oil to make our faces shine,
and bread to sustain our life.
The trees of God drink their fill—
those cedars of Lebanon.
(Psalm 104:10-16)
MUSIC
Sung in Latin, the lyrics in English are found below.
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I am an olive tree flourishing in God’s house,
for I trust in God’s love forever and ever.
(Psalm 52:8)
A SONG LYRIC
O blooming branch,
you stand upright in your nobility,
as breaks the dawn on high:
Rejoice now and be glad,
and deign to free us, frail and weakened,
from the wicked habits of our age;
stretch forth your hand
to lift us up aright.
- O Frondens Virga, by Hildegard of Bingen
translation by Alex Burns.
VERSE OF THE DAY
Happy are you when you find Wisdom,
She is a tree of life for those who embrace her, and all who hold fast to her.
(Proverbs 3:13a;18)
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| Schloss Drachenburg on the River Rhein, Germany Image by Arno Hoyer |
To listen to the songs of Hlidegard of Bingen is to experience a continuous cascading ride up and down a single line of notes, often without a clear melody, and without a consistent rhythm. The twelfth-century plainchant seems to release the soul of the singer upward into a heavenly realm, while also holding the ‘drone’, a continuous tone that provides the anchoring musical sound, from which the song emerges. Like the first sound from a bagpipe player as they breathe into the instrument, the ‘drone’ expresses a beginning, a start to the musical experience. (Today’s music does not include a ‘drone’ but we will hear it in coming days.)
While the dusky sounds of medieval chant may feel a million miles away from where we live in twenty-first-century North America, Hildegard, who lived a full millenium ago, is more relevant now than ever. Hers is a spirituality and theology rooted deep in the earth. Hildegard was perhaps the first ecotheologian as we might term it now, whose cultural and spiritual Celtic roots were met by her training and vocation as a nun in the emergingly dominant ethos of Roman Christianity in Northern Europe. Therefore, in her words and in her compositions, her writings, her visual drawings, her botanical and medical writings (for she was prolifically expressive in all of these), the earth is never far from her heart and her mind.
This profound love of Creation infuses her theology. ‘O blooming branch,’ the song lyric says, addressing Mary. In her writings, Hildegard calls Jesus the ‘green man,’ and his mother 'the greenest branch.’ They weave through her creative and scientific writings, inextricably entwined with the natural world. To ‘green the soul’ is to bring oneself closer to the divine energy in all created life.
Over the next ten days, we will explore this 'greening,' the various facets of the spirituality of Hildegard, as we hold up our prayers also for our mother, the earth. How can Hildegard help us return to our deepest longings and affinities with our natural world? How will she inspire us into a more committed care of it?
Today is the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen, who died on this date in 1179.
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Scripture texts are taken from The Inclusive Bible.
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LC† Radiant Earth, Sacred Calling is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
