#o vis aeternitatis

O vis aeternitatis Hildegard von Bingen

O vis aeternitatis, quae omnia componis in uno ordine.

Mystery

Jesus has spoken in parables and figurative language because whatever this Kingdom of Heaven is, it is beyond our capacity to fully understand, at least for now. We’ve only been pointed in the direction.

-Br. Mark Brown

Full Sermon:  http://ssje.org/ssje/2011/12/15/place-of-superlatives-br-mark-brown/

Hildegard Von Bingen - O Vis Aeternitatis (performed by Sequentia)

{song selection & reflection by Peter L.}

Br Mark points to the reason why the 'Kingdom of Heaven' can't be approached as an idea. It's a mystery that must be penetrated. In Buddhism they say that Nirvana is not a place but a change in perception. I don't think it can be put into words. It can only be experienced through a process of transformation that opens the heart to it. Many years ago, I had a dream in which my 'brother' and I stood in a great cathedral. From a window high in the vault, a beam of light filled me with a sense of eternity. I can remember thinking that it was a miracle that I could experience such a thing, even in a dream. It must be real, right? But then, when my 'brother' - I don't have a brother - was hit by the light, he screamed in agony. And I felt it too.  When I woke, I wondered why the same light could fill me with both ecstasy and agony, and I've been pursuing that mystery ever since. How can we let the Kingdom into our hearts "as it is in heaven?" What is the mechanism in us by which it is resisted? That strange, dark alliance with the material, divided from the eternal Light...

There's so much to say about Hildegard Von Bingen, twelfth century mystic, composer, herbalist, prioress. I'll leave it to one of her canticles to speak for her, "O Vis Aeterntatis," performed by Sequentia, the great exponent of her music:

V. O power of eternity,/ who have ordered all things are created/ as you have willed./and your word itself,/ puts on flesh/ in the form/ that is drawn from Adam.

St. Hildegard von Bingen - O Vis Aeternitatis

performed by Sequentia Ensemble