Alleluia! O virga mediatrix (Symphonia 18)

For the Octave of Easter, an Alleluia-verse for the Virgin
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Initial F: Tree of Jesse
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 146r.
J. Paul Getty Museum

Alleluia! O virga mediatrix, sancta viscera tua mortem superaverunt et venter tuus omnes creaturas     illuminavit in pulcro flore de suavissima integritate clausi pudoris tui orto.

Alleluia! O branch and mediatrix, your sacred flesh has conquered death, your womb the world illumined, all creatures in the bloom of beauty sprung from that exquisite purity of your enclosèd modesty.

Nunc gaudeant materna (Symphonia 67)

For Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, an Antiphon for the Church
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.3:
Mother Church & Baptism.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 51r.

Nunc gaudeant materna viscera      Ecclesie, quia in superna simphonia      filii eius in sinum suum collocati sunt. Unde, o turpissime serpens,      confusus es, quoniam quos tua estimatio      in visceribus      suis habuit nunc fulgent in sanguine      Filii Dei, et ideo laus tibi sit, Rex altissime.        Alleluia.

Now let the womb and heart      of Mother Church rejoice! For in the starry symphony      her children are gathered to her bosom. O vile snake, you are      confounded, for those your hollow jealousy      had thought      it clutched within its guts now sparkle in the blood      of God’s own Son— praise be to you, the highest King!      Alleluia!

Service and Sacrifice: A Friend and the Memorial of His Love

Bronze sculpture at
Church Street UMC.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you…
This I command you, to love one another.
     —John 15:14-17

We know that Jesus should be our role-model in service, but it’s often difficult to know just which Jesus we’re supposed to follow. The teacher, the healer, the broken, dying man—or the Christ and Son of God, Lord of Heaven and Earth? Some of these roles are easier to imitate than others, and we struggle to hold them all together. Jesus’ disciples, too, often struggled to understand just what it meant for their wise and compassionate teacher to be both Messiah and bound to die.

O virgo Ecclesia (Symphonia 66)

For Holy Week, an Antiphon for the Church by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.6: The Crucifixion.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86rr.

O virgo Ecclesia, plangendum est, quod sevissimus lupus filios tuos   de latere tuo abstraxit. O ve callido serpenti! Sed o quam preciosus est       sanguis Salvatoris, qui in vexillo regis Ecclesiam ipsi      desponsavit, unde filios illius requirit.

O Virgin Mother Church, lament and mourn! A savage wolf has snatched your children from your side. O woe to serpent’s trickery! But O, how precious is       the Savior’s blood that with the royal banner sealed his bridegroom’s promise      to the Church, whose children he is seeking.

O spectabiles viri (Symphonia 31)

For the Feast of the Prophet Ezekiel, an Antiphon for Patriarchs and Prophets
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias III.4: The Pillar
of the Word of God.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 145v.

O spectabiles viri qui pertransistis occulta, aspicientes per oculos spiritus et annuntiantes in lucida umbra acutam et viventem lucem in virga germinantem, que sola floruit de introitu radicantis luminis: Vos antiqui sancti, predixistis salvationem exulum animarum que inmerse fuerant morti, qui circuisti ut rote, mirabiliter loquentes      mistica montis qui celum tangit, pertransiens ungendo      multas aquas, cum etiam inter vos surrexit lucida lucerna, que ipsum montem precurrens          ostendit.

O men of sight—what a sight! Through mysteries you’ve passed with gaze of spirit’s eyes, to announce in shining shadow a living, piercing light that buds upon that single branch that flourished at the entrance of deep-rooted light: You saints of old! You have foretold salvation of souls in exile plunged, in death immersed. You circled, spun like wheels as wondrously proclaimed      the mountain’s mysteries whose top the heavens touched and passed through many waters      with anointing— yet still among you arose a shining lamp that raced ahead, that mountain      to reveal.

O successores (Symphonia 40)

For the Feast of St. Isidore of Seville, an Antiphon for Confessors
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Initial D: Lion of Judah
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 111v.
J. Paul Getty Museum

O successores fortissimi leonis, inter templum et altare dominantes in ministratione eius   sicut angeli sonant in laudibus et sicut assunt populis      in adiutorio, vos estis inter illos qui hec faciunt, semper curam habentes      in officio Agni.

Successors of the mighty Lion, between the temple and the altar commanding in his service: as angels sing in praise resounding and quicken to defend the people      with their aid— so you among them as they do these things, keep ever carefully the office      of the Lamb.