Sunday, September 14, 2025: Jim and Denise chose Hildegard of Bingen as inspiration for TODAY'S, Emmaus Liturgy
Today: Join us for the Emmaus Celebration at 3:45 for our welcoming, followed by our Liturgical Meal and a Potluck:
In Person at Christ Church United Methodist
1717 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa CA 95405
We begin with welcoming at 3:45
Or On Zoom:
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Jim - For Sunday's liturgy we chose Hildegard of Bingen as our inspiration. Her feast day is Sept. 17.
This multitalented and prolific abbess of a Benedictine abbey was an influential preacher, visionary, healer, scientist, composer, theologian, artist, and poet. Hildegard lived in the twelfth century from 1098-1179.
That was early Middle Ages, end of the crusades, over 800 years ago. But she was so modern, so ahead of her times, that she would be avante garde today. She was such a thorn in the side of the patriarchal Roman hierarchy that she was not canonized a saint until 2012. Pope Benedict named her a Doctor of the Church a few months after that.
As one of the great “creation-centered mystics of the West, she coined the term viriditas, or greening power, connecting it closely with creativity. We want to focus on that today. It is easy
at first to understand her “viriditas” to refer to nature only. But she goes much deeper to parallel growth in nature with growth in our spiritual life. In her many visions she calls God’s grace, air, moisture, wind, and fire. Salvation is Christ’s greening power. The Spirit is greening power in motion. Humans are vines and branches. She equates sin to drying up.
We will include a few of Hildegard’s very beautiful songs in our liturgy today. Let’s start with
"O dulcis Divinitas." Here are the English lyrics.
Oh Sweet Divinity
Oh sweet divinity, oh delightful life,
could I carry in you the garment of light
and receive back what I have lost
with my first appearance!
To you I sigh and call upon all virtues!
Hildegard von Bingen, Alexandra Marisa Wilcke (Marisa) “O dulcis Divinitas”
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading – Marcie Isaiah 58:8-11 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Second Reading – Jane
“I am the supreme and fiery force who kindled every living spark.... As I circled the whirling sphere with my upper wings (that is, with wisdom), I ordered it rightly. And I am the fiery life of the essence of God: I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And, with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life.... I am Life.... Mine is the blast of the resounding Word through which all creation came to be, and I quickened all things with my breath.... I am Life, whole and undivided—not hewn from any stone, nor budded from branches, nor rooted in virile strength; but all that lives has its root in Me.”
From: Book of Divine Works (LDO). St. Hildegard of Bingen, CUA Press, Oct 16, 2018, p. 33
Song from movie (H song)
Quotes from Hildegard
Victoria
God created humankind so that humankind might cultivate the earthly and thereby create the heavenly.
Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings. Now, think. What delight God gives to humankind with all these things. All nature is at the disposal of humankind. We are to work with it. For without we cannot survive.
The soul is a breath of living spirit, that with excellent sensitivity, permeates the entire body to give it life. Just so, the breath of the air makes the earth fruitful. Thus, the air is the soul of the earth, moistening it, greening it.
Dan -
Most noble evergreen with your roots in the sun: you shine in the cloudless sky of a sphere no earthly eminence can grasp, enfolded in the clasp of ministries divine. You blush like the dawn, you burn like a flame of the sun.
I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And with the airy wind, I quicken all thingsvitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life.
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.
Victoria -
Humankind, full of all creative possibilities, is God’s work. Humankind alone is called to co - create. With nature’s help, humankind can set into creation all that is necessary and life-sustaining.
All of creation is a song of praise to God. Love abounds in all things, excels from the depths to beyond the stars, is lovingly disposed to all things.
All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of Gods brilliance, emerging from God like the rays of the sun.
Dan-
Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world—everything is hidden in you. We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.The earth which sustains humanity must not be injured. It must not be destroyed!
Jim - Shared Homily (Wheel of Life illustration)
In this beautiful illustration and her commentary on it, Hildegard celebrates the deep psychological healing that occurs when microcosm and macrocosm are wedded again. We see in this cosmic wheel, humans cultivating the seasons of the year and the seasons of their lives.
She says, “The sun’s heat and the moisture of the waters cultivate the whole earth, make it fruitful, and complete it, just as a potter completes his vessels by turning his wheel.” And she celebrates the fertility of the earth saying, “I saw how moisture from the gentle layer of air flowed over the earth. This air revived the earth’s greening power and caused all fruits to put forth seeds and become fertile.”
Hildegard was truly celebrating life with this vision, for she says, “God is life.” She knows this from observing the divine brilliance in creatures. “All living creatures are, so to speak, sparks from the radiance of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from, God like the rays of the sun.” She asks a necessary question: “How would God be known as life if not through the fact that the realm of the living, which glorifies and praises God, also emerges from God? On this account God has established the living, burning sparks as a sign of the brilliance of the divine renown.”
Hildegard completes her meditation with a lengthy exegesis of the first chapter of St. John’s gospel. There we are reminded that the light of God came into the world to set its tent among us. (John 1:14)
Questions for our shared homily:
• Looking back on your own life, when have you experienced the greening power
of God’s grace
• lifting you from the crisis of loss, despair, illness, conflict, etc.?
• How do you recognize the greening all around you, in yourself?
• What is your part in supporting the ongoing greening of everything?
What do we bring to the table?
Liturgy of the Eucharist
All: On the night before he died, Jesus was at table with his friends. He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to his friends saying This is my body, broken for you.
As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine. Again, he gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends and said, this cup is the new covenant of my lifeblood shed for you and as often as you do this, you do this in memory of me.
Acclamation
With this ceremony, we have converted bread and wine to Christ’s body and blood. So we can proclaim.
All: Christ is here. God is with us. His Spirit will never leave.
Denise: Now, Mother, gathered at your table, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine, and ourselves, our hands and feet to do your will here on earth. Pour out your Spirit upon all these gifts that they, and we, may be the presence of Christ in the world. Breathe your Spirit over the whole earth and make us your new creation.
All: (Holding up the bread and wine)
For it is through him, with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
All:
Our Benefactor, who art in everything
Blessed be Thy presence.
Thy self come, Thy love abound,
In me as well as in all others.
Give us this day awareness of You.
And forgive us our shirking,
As we forgive the shirking of others.
Dissuade us from temporary distractions,
But guide us to oneness with you.
Let us offer to one another a sign of our peace and love.
Invitation to Communion
Denise: Our Benefactor, whom created the universe and all that is in it, has joined us now in the presence of this bread. Our Benefactor, who gave us the viriditas of the earth, now meets us in this cup.
So come, Beloved Friends, and take this bread, drink this wine. In them, God comes to us, so that we may recognize we are part of the greening life force, as it is part of us.
Hildegard’s choral: “O viriditas digiti Dei”
R. O viriditas digiti Dei,
in qua Deus constituit plantationem
que in excelso resplendent ut statuta columna:
R. Tu gloriosa in preparatione Dei.
V. Et o altitudo montis
que numquam dissipaberis
in differentia Dei,
tu tamen stas a longe ut exul,
sed non est in potestate armati
qui te rapiat.
R. Tu gloriosa in preparatione Dei.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto.
R. Tu gloriosa in preparatione Dei.
English Translation:
R. O fresh viridity of God’s creative finger,
in which God planted his green vineyard
that glistens in the heights, a lofty pillar:
R. How glorious you are as you prepare for God!
V. And O, the mountain’s height!
O never shall you be laid low
when God marks the difference—
no, you stand yet afar, an exile,
but not ensnared by that brigand’s power
who snatches after you.
R. How glorious you are as you prepare for God!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
R. How glorious you are as you prepare for God!
Closing
This part of our service is done. Though as Fr Angelito would say:
This mass is never ending. We take the fruits of it with us to influence our thoughts and behaviors throughout the 2 weeks until we come again. And then, we say Thanks be to God for the blessings it has bestowed on us. Amen
