Daily Reading for September 17 • Hildegard of Bingen, 1179

There was no word that could quite express what Hildegard understood about God, so she made one up: viriditas. Viriditas reminded her of viridis, the color of green plants. Viriditas was the power for growth, the luxuriant energy of the spirit of God. That was what Hildegard had learned on her childhood ramblings. For Hildegard, God was organic, full of the energy of good rich compost.

Hildegard sees salvation history in terms of viriditas. In a poem to Mary, the mother of Jesus, she sings,

Hail to you, O greenest, most fertile branch!
You budded forth amidst breezes and winds
in search of the knowledge of all that is holy.
When the time was ripe
your own branch brought forth blossoms....
In you, the most stunning flower has blossomed
and gives off its sweet odor
to all the herbs and roots,
which were dry and thirsting before your arrival.
Now they spring forth in fullest green!

When Hildegard’s spirit felt dry and sterile, God’s dew, God’s moisture made her feel alive again, so she could in turn nourish others. It is no wonder that this understanding of God revealed itself in her visions, the language of Hildegard’s unconscious and of her half-forgotten childhood of memories:

I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.
I am the rain coming from the dew
that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life.

Hildegard expresses articulately for Christians the immanence of God: God’s real presence in and through creation.

From Organic Prayer: A Spiritual Gardening Companion by Nancy Roth. Copyright © 1993, 2007. From Seabury Books, an imprint of Church Publishing. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org