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| Image by Rennett Stowe |
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A GREETING
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
(Psalm 104:33)
A READING
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent;
you set the beams of your chambers on the waters;
you make the clouds your chariot;
you ride on the wings of the wind;
you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers.
You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
(Psalm 104:1a-5)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
(Psalm 104:30)
A REFLECTION
We are here to contribute to the ongoing evolution of the universe and participate in the wonder of it all which also means discovering more and more about creation, about the ongoing birthing or genesis around us, all 13.8 billion years of it and even all two trillion galaxies of space encircling it. In Hildegard’s vision, cosmogenesis becomes our common work, our common service to God and to the world.
- from "Hildegard on Our Work as Cosmic and Sacramental Work,"
a blog essay by Matthew Fox, found on Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
VERSE OF THE DAY
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
(Psalm 36:9)
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| "Cultivating the Cosmic Tree," Image designed by Hildegard of Bingen |
On Day 3, we reflected on Hildegard's fascination with the 'circle' and included on that day one of her illuminations that take on a mandala-like form. Today, we dive deeper into the meaning of these drawings and how much they express a cosmic Christianity that her numerous visionary encounters with God were revealing to her.
Today's video features visually one such vision, "Cultivating the Cosmic Tree." 'Cultivating' is intentionally in the present tense, as a recognition of how much Creation continues to be generating and regenerating itself. It is natural for species to go through cycles of extinction and iterative evolution, a kind of 'comeback' in a different form. However, in our own time we are escalating the extinction part of the cycle, in many cases with no real reason to believe that what is being lost will return -- in any form. Hildegard believed that it was esesential to understand the inextricably interconnected nature of all created life. This mandala visually represents the four elements, the winds, and the turn of the seasons, amid a turning wheel of a garden of trees, populated by human figures. The figures are a part of the cycle and do not dominate it, but intermingle with it.
Hildegard began creating these visual works in 1135 at the age of 32 while living with her community at Disibodenberg. This was a monastery that also had a community of men, with whom the women shared space for decades until Hildegard pleaded for and received funding for a new abbey for women at Rupertsberg. It is possible that there were visual artists among the larger community who listened to her visions and created the images for her. (It is known that she did not make them herself, but commissioned them and designed them.)
While she was likely motivated by the intensity of her visions to try to represent what she saw visually, it is not clear why she chose this particular form. It is possible that as stained glass was starting to emerge in churches more regularly (this century would bring forth Chartres), she longed to combine her passionate attachment to the 'living light,' in the ways that stained glass allowed a reflection of light into space. Stained glass windows were not teaching windows yet in her time; rather, if they existed at all in monasteries, they would have been small blocks of mostly one or two colours. Perhaps she longed for something like a prayer icon with which to manifest the blinding light that often accompanied her visions.
Art helps us to make sense of the world around us and the world within ourselves. Sometimes we don't fully understand what has taken place within our spiritual journey until we share it, with friends or in a trusted community. Just as each work of art is unique unto itself, our created world contains an uncountable number of unique life forms. Each of these, believed Hildegard, reflects God's design for the cosmos, which is beyond us to fathom. How can we remind ourselves of the relatively small role we play in the cosmic order? How can we re-imagine ourselves into Hildegard's vision, in which we participate in these cycles of life as just one of millions of life forms, instead of believing we are the most important one?
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Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
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| Image by Rennett Stowe |
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!
