St. Hildegard had a passion for music. For her, music was alive and found in every living being.
“There is the music of Heaven in all things.” – St. Hildegard of Bingen
I remember when I first started singing St. Hildegard’s music. I was part of choir, and we were getting ready to perform St. HIldegard’s masterpiece: O Jerusalem. I would show up at rehearsal after a day of teaching feeling drained and ready for a nap. After singing St. Hildegard’s music however, I left rehearsal feeling like I had just gotten plugged into a socket of powerful energy. I had a spring in my step and was ready to climp the nearest mountain!
For St. Hildegard, music was the Word of God and the Word of God was music. She said, “….without the Word of God no creature has being. God’s Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.”
What is this Word of God of which she speaks? We hear this word “Word” and might think of the words on a paper. That’s a good place to begin, for us, as human beings. But now, open your mind and expand your thinking to include much more.
We, as human beings, create and one way that we create is through our words – in song, poetry, and speech. Words that are written on paper become alive in our activity of expressing them through us. Singing a song, speaking a poem or lines in a play.
“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity.”
–St. Hildegard of Bingen
We can even remember the story of the Kalevala, the great epic of Finland where creation arose through song and where creation remembers its origin through song.From the Kalevala, the epic of Finland –
Vainomoinen opened his mouth and began to sing. He sang a most powerful song that only the wisest and the oldest upon earth could sing.
It rang with eternal wisdom that stretched to the farthest depths of the sea. Across the wide expanse of land. And to the heights of the sky.
He sang of life and death and the origin of all that was created upon Mother Earth.
He sang of the waters, the mountains, the animals.
And of himself, the first human being.
He sang of love and hate.
He sang of creation and destruction, of ease and pain.
He sang of all such matters of importance in the world.
The words of song traveled across the land as seeds do in a breeze. The earth came alive and shimmered like the leaves of a birch tree.
For She remembered her Origin.
The sunlight danced. The streams bubbled. The mountains trembled. The flowers swayed.
All creation sparkled in this knowledge. All of the land glimmered with the life of creation.
We can picture our words, our speech, originating in song, in music. Each word that is sung exists as creative divine power. Each word is made up of sounds within the word. And each sound has creative divine power.
Every element has a sound, an original sound from the order of God; all those sounds unite like the harmony from harps and zithers.”
– St. Hildegard of Bingen
In ancient times, when you spoke the names of the letters, you spoke the divine spiritual mystery of all human beings. Each individual sound had deeper meaning where the divine was revealed. A letter such as Alpha when spoken revealed the “one who experiences breathing in the world.”
These pictures can help us to realize that what lies behind our words and all of our creating in the world exists as Divine Wisdom or Divine Word. This creative power is a spiritual force that is alive and living. It’s a fertile ground within us for birthing and creating our gifts within the world. Our thoughts, actions, and words blossom from this fertile ground out into the world.
When we become aware of this creative spiritual force that is living in us, we become aware of the Divine within us and within the world.
St. Hildegard speaks of God invoking the Divine Word that is in every creature. And everything manifest is Divine Word, is God. The Divine Word, Divine Wisdom, is alive in everything.
“All creation is awakened, called, by the resounding melody, God’s invocation of the Word.” – St. Hildegard of Bingen
St. Hildegard inspires us to discover the Divine Word in all of creation. Here are a few ways for you to explore her wisdom in your daily life today.
- Listen in Silence – Sit in silence in nature or at home. Listen for the music that flows forth from all of creation – from trees, stones, humans, the sun, the moon. Hear the praise coming from all of creation. Picture this flowing forth from all things and bathing you with its joy, its warmth, its love.
“There is no creation that does not have a radiance. Be it greenness or seed, blossom or beauty – it could not be creation without it.”
– St. Hildegard of Bingen
For your breath, for your health, for nature’s contribution to your health, for your spirit guides, for those people in your life, for the Divine, and more. Offer your thanks, your praises. In the morning when you arise and before sleep when you go to bed.
The wind blows the flame and praises God.
In the voice we hear the word which praises God.
And the word, when heard, praises God.
So all of creation is a song of praise to God.”
– St. Hildegard of Bingen
