Preaching in Taiwan at the Fall Episcopal Church bishops’ meeting the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori said:
Hildegard speaks scientifically and theologically of divine creativity as viriditas, reflecting both greenness and truth. Viriditas represents the fecundity of the earth as God’s creation, and the fecundity of the soul, which gives life to the body. Viriditas nurtures the virtues, through which human beings give evidence of God’s creative life in the world. Viriditas as life-giving greenness is close kin to the holy wholeness Jesus speaks of as abundant life. In one of Hildegard’s canticles Mary is described as grassland touched by dew, and filled with greenness. In another, Hildegard speaks to God saying, “you summon and unite all. Through you the clouds stream, the upper air flies, the stones have their temper, the waters lead forth their rills, and the earth exudes viriditas.”
Hildegard helped to expand the church’s vision – as a theologian, woman, mystic, scientist and healer. She reminds us that we may see God intimately in the myriad and seemingly mundane works of creation – the heavens, clouds, and the signs of abundant greenness that surround us. She and her spiritual siblings remind us that God is never bound up in traditional images or names, and that God is known as mother as much as father.
Read it all here.
The hashtag for the bishops’ meeting is #HOBFall14
“Meister des Hildegardis-Codex 001 cropped” by Meister des Hildegardis-Codex. Original uploader was BorgQueen at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:FSII using CommonsHelper.(Original text : The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
