This being women’s month, you are invited, this week, to reflect on the contributions of the five women and what wisdom they might hold for our own context. Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Sienna, Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux, recognised as doctors of the church, and Edith Stein whose feast we celebrated on women’s
day.
Hildegard of Bingen was an extraordinarily gifted woman, she was a mystic, a healer, a woman of science and medicine, a theologian and a musician. She wrote three volumes of visionary theology and is still considered the best woman composer of the middle ages. She was only canonised and made a doctor of the church in 2012, 800 years after she died.
Hildegard lived in the Rhineland in the early part of the 11th century. She was sent to live in a Benedictine monastery from the age of eight. She became abbess of her convent at 38 and founded a new monastery in Eibingen against the wishes of the monks. At the age of 41 she received a call from God to write down what she experienced in her visions – a risky thing to do at the time when women’s religious experience
was often treated with suspicion. She lived a life of prayer, writing, creativity, and leadership of her monastic community.
She ran into serious conflict with church authorities in the last year of her life. They wanted to remove the body of a man whom they had excommunicated from the grounds of the Rupertsberg convent where he was buried. Knowing he had confessed and been reconciled with God before he died, she refused and
removed all the cemetery markers and stones so that they could not exhume the body. As punishment she and her community were placed under an interdict which prevented them from receiving the Eucharist or singing the Divine office which was central to their lives of prayer. The interdict was finally lifted when Hildegard reminded the church authorities that those who prevent God’s praises in this life will, in their own afterlife, go to “the place of no music.
Hildegard has re-emerged strongly has having profound relevance for our time. Her understanding of Creation, its importance and the need to care for it is echoed in Laudato Si. She believed strongly in the interconnectedness and relationality of all things. She spoke of the greening power of God – “viriditas” which she saw as present in everything.
She
was a powerful preacher and in the last decade of her life she was invited to preach in many cathedrals and churches – which was unheard of for a woman at that time. She was not afraid to speak truth to power. She wrote to Bishops and even the Pope about her concerns.
Her theological vision and image of God are profoundly positive and life-giving. Her wisdom is for living a life that is fruitful, filled with life,
beauty and creativity and courage.
Where might I need to ask God for courage to do what I deeply believe to be right in the face of opposition?
Make a list of the activities which make up your life experience right now. Now looking at each one talk with God about whether it is truly nourishing and
life-giving.
