Timely Words from Saint Hildegard
For Hildegard, Wisdom is the work of the Holy Spirit. “O moving 
force of Wisdom, encircling the wheel of the cosmos, Encompassing all that is, all that has life, in one vast circle You have three wings: One unfurls aloft in the highest heights. The second dips its way dripping sweat on the Earth. Over, under and through all things whirls the third. Praise to you, O Wisdom, worthy of praise!”
“I, Wisdom, am the one whose praise echoes on high. I adorn all the earth. I am the breeze that nurtures all things green. I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am led by the spirit to feed the purest streams. I am the rain coming from the dew That causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life. I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work. I am the yearning for good.” “The Holy Spirit kindles the hearts of humankind. Like tympanum and lyre it plays them, gathering in the temple of the soul.” “Like billowing clouds, like the incessant gurgle of the brook, The longing of the soul can never be stilled.”
Saint Hildegard was born in 1098, at Bermersheim near Mainz, Germany, the youngest of ten children. Around eight years of age, she was entrusted to the care of a holy woman named Jutta, daughter of the Count of Sponheim. Together Jutta and Hildegard entered the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenburg in 1112. Hildegard remained under Jutta’s tutelage for thirty years. When Jutta died, Hildegard became the magistra, or teacher and leader at age 38. Hildegard and her sisters left Disibodenberg to found a monastery called Rupertsberg in 1150. She is the author of several visionary mystical spiritual texts, composer of music and healer. She died September 17, 1179 at Rupertsberg, near Bingen. She was canonized on May 10, 2012. Her feast day is September 17.
