Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Search the Poetry Chaikhana site:

<<Previous Poem | View All Poems by Hildegard of Bingen | Next Poem >>
O ignis Spiritus Paracliti / Sequence for the Holy Spirit by Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) Timeline English version by Barbara Newman Original Language Latin Christian : Catholic 12th Century Fiery Spirit, fount of courage, life within life of all that has being! Holy are you, transmuting the perfect      into the real. Holy are you, healing      the mortally stricken. Holy are you, cleansing      the stench of wounds. O sacred breath O blazing love O savor in the breast and balm flooding the heart with the fragrance of good, O limpid mirror of God who leads wanderers home and hunts out the lost, Armor of the heart and hope of the integral body, sword-belt of honor: save those who know bliss! Guard those the fiend holds imprisoned, free those in fetters whom divine force wishes to save. O current of power permeating all in the heights upon the earth and in all deeps: you bind and gather all people together. Out of you clouds come streaming, winds take wing from you, dashing rain against stone; and ever-fresh springs well from you, washing the evergreen globe. O teacher of those who know, a joy to the wise is the breath of Sophia. Praise then be yours! you are the song of praise, the delight of life, a hope and a potent honor granting garlands of light.     -- from Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia armonie celstium revelationum, by Hildegard of Bingen / Translated by Barbara Newman Amazon.com	Themes   Bliss   Freedom   Heart   Lover and Beloved   Pain and Wounding Recommended Books The Book of the Rewards of Life: Liber Vitae Meritorum, by Hildegard of Bingen / Translated by Bruce W. Hozeski Creation and Christ: The Wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen, Translated by Columbar Hart / Translated by Jane Bishop German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others, Edited by Karen J. Campbell Hildegard of Bingen, by Regine Pernoud / Translated by Paul Duggan Hildegard of Bingen, by Nancy Fierro More >>
<<Previous Poem | View More Poems by Hildegard of Bingen | Next Poem >>

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This song of praise is more than just a beautiful catalog of how God, in the maternal aspect of the Holy Spirit, is so important to creation. Read it deeply and you will see that a powerful and very specific vision is being communicated.

God, through the Holy Spirit, is "life within life / of all that has being." This is an image of the formless, vivifying force of the divine, the Holy Breath that permeates all of manifest existence, everything in nature, every form, giving it life, making it holy, making it divine.

Through this divine animating spirit shared by all, all separate things are actually one: "you bind and gather / all people together."

Especially notice the lines:

Out of you clouds
come streaming, winds
take wing from you, dashing
rain against stone;
and ever-fresh springs
well from you, washing
the evergreen globe.

Another translation renders these lines as:

From you clouds flow, air flies,
rocks have their humours,
rivers spring forth from the waters
and earth sweats her green vigour.

All of physical reality, even in its most solid forms of earth and rock, all of 'solid' reality... flows. Nothing is as tangible or stationary as it may superficially appear. All forms possess a sort of divine inner 'sap' -- the fluid Holy Spirit -- that is its true being or essence which shows itself as life: "and earth sweats her green vigour."

This is not a dusty theological statement, but a vision of life, how the Divine flows unhindered through all of creation, and it is that flowing that is life. And all things, all people, you and I, we are not solid, separate physical bodies; we, too, are nothing less than that eternal flow.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2009 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.