Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, no. 1

 Matthew Fox writes that he was given Sister Dorothy Stang's copy of the book, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, written by Sister Gabriele Uhlein,OSF, and published in 1983 by Bear and Co. This book was found at Sister Dorothy's bedside after her assassination in Brazil in 2005 where she had been working with the indigenous people to help protect the Amazon from complete deforestation by large multinational interests.  

It seems that as Sister Dorothy read and pondered the meditations in the book, she added her own sketches. I can understand why Sister Dorothy would feel the pull to draw her sensations and musings as she read, and that is surely a practice that St. Hildegard would approve of. The book has lots of blank spaces and even whole pages for such reflections. I may attempt that practice myself, but for now, I will do what I have done for years, and that is to share some of these writings and attach a photograph. 

I believe Sister Dorothy, St. Hildegard, and it seems Sister Gabriele, are trustworthy guides in these times when the earth is being maimed by greed and ignorance. However, I cannot help but sense that we are being offered an abundance of help. The Holy One speaks in surprising ways, and the earth, as wounded as she is, can still heal and teach us. May we listen with humility, and respond with joyful gratitude.   

   

"A wheel was shone to me, 

wonderful to behold...   

  

Divinity is in its omniscience and omnipotence, 

like a wheel, a circle, a whole, 

that can neither be understood, nor divided, nor begun nor ended." 

         

  

image: San Leandro, June 2024

      

   

Pondering John 20:27

 "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 

Jesus     

  

"To feed the hungry means to do away with militarism. To bless the children means to leave the trees standing for them."

Dorothee Soelle  as quoted in Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox 

We are called to touch the wounds of Christ.         

     

photograph:  San Leandro, April 2021

Beyond

 "Beyond the grandeur is God."  

Rabbi Heschel 

  

"God... always creates in the present. The act of creation does not fade into the past but is always in the beginning and in process and new...There is no standing still for us in any path in this life, and there never has been for any person, no matter how advanced one might be."

Meister Ekhart     

  

Meister Eckhart, A Mystic Warrior for Our Times (p.12)  

Matthew Fox 

  

    

   

     

photograph:  San Leandro, March 2021  

When I walk past this peony today, it will be changing.  So will I.    

Wonderful

 A friend recently suggested that I might like the book, Meister Eckhart, A Mystic Warrior for Our Times by Matthew Fox.  At least I think this is the book she was suggesting; it is easy to get lost when ordering online.  In the first chapter entitled, "The God of Awe, Wonder, Radical Amazement, and Justice: Meister Eckhart Meets Rabbi Heschel", Fox writes, "We need wonder to restart culture because the modern agenda started philosophy not with awe and wonder but with doubt. Heschel claims that this is destructive because 'wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge. ' Merkle [John C. Merkle, Genesis of Faith] comments that a philosophy 'that begins in doubt will find it difficult, if not impossible, to include wonder.' This explains why we live in a society that is less and less wonder oriented, and why our educational systems are failing - and boring - our young  people. Heschel makes the point that there is no word in biblical Hebrew for doubt - but there are many words for wonder (9).        

Granted there are some pretty sweeping statements here that I will probably never be prepared enough to defend or argue.  Yet, having started way too many projects in the spirit of doubt, I know there is some deep truth here, and I just felt my life shift.  Jesus often lamented the doubt that would periodically take root in the hearts of those around him.   When we doubt, we listen too much to our own fears.  Wonder opens us to new possibilities.   Wonder leaves room for God. 

photograph:  San Leandro, March, 2021