Illuminations Quotes

“Think about what you love, Hildegard. Trust it. That’s where your talents lie and that’s where you’ll find happiness, even here.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations

“Past and future were connected in an eternal ring,”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“The drama streamed forth from the might of its own grace, like a waterfall plunging into a woodland pool. Underneath the words, the watery variety of sounds, silences, and terrifying mysteries beat in my pulse, in the ebb and flow of the music. I was not the composer, merely the conduit as this new creation poured out of me, floating like a feather on the breath of God.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“Encircling all this was a ring of flame, the holiness of God, my Mother, blazing everywhere. Our abbot and prior preached that God was above all things, and yet my vision told me that God was in all things, alive inside every stone and leaf. A white cloud, filled with light, opened and a voice began to sing. I am the breeze that nurtures everything green and growing, that urges the blossoms to flourish, the fruits to ripen. I am the dew that makes the grasses laugh with the joy of life.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“Our abbot and prior preached that God was above all things, and yet my vision told me that God was in all things, alive inside every stone and leaf. A white cloud, filled with light, opened and a voice began to sing. I am the breeze that nurtures everything green and growing, that urges the blossoms to flourish, the fruits to ripen. I am the dew that makes the grasses laugh with the joy of life.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“A fifteen-year-old bricked inside my anchorage, I knew little of the outer world in which these women struggled to survive. Their laments were my education. As my vocation demanded, I offered them my prayers, but I also told them what herbs might ease their afflictions.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“My magistra had never forgiven me for Trutwib’s prophecy. The one who lives under your wing shall grow and grow until she outshines you. You will die, forgotten and obscure, and she shall blaze like the sun.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“And think about what you love, Hildegard. Trust it. That’s where your talents lie and that’s where you’ll find happiness, even here.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“As if in answer to my desolation, a golden orb came floating down and I saw her in the midst of that pulsing sphere. A face like Walburga’s but not Walburga’s. A face bathed in tenderness, the Mother of my deepest longing, she who gave me all the love I craved and more. Beloved, don’t give up hope. When the time is ripe, I will set you free. “Hildegard!”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“How easy it was to tear things down, how difficult to build something up from the ground.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“A true love,” she said at last, “sees past the beginnings of things. It sees them through to the end. Anything less is mere vanity.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“The soul is symphonic. Such is the sweetness of music that it banishes human weakness and fear, and draws us back to our original state of grace,”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“other people’s love brings us closer to God, for how can God be found if not through love?”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“vision told me that God was in all things, alive inside every stone and leaf.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“How she craved pain, how it thrilled her, weeping tears of blood. Our Savior died for the sins of the world--that was the true meaning of passion.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations

“Nine years ago I had made my solemn promise before the old archbishop to love God and love my neighbors. Now the enormity of my vow overshadowed me. I didn't care for poverty or renunciation. Obedience rankled me most of all. But it was the commandment to love that held me in its grip.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations

“The soul is symphonic. Such is the sweetness of music that it banishes human weakness and fear, and draws us back to our original state of grace, reuniting us with heaven. All creation seemed to share our joy, the sky a pure and cloudless arc above our heads, the rising sun filling the leaves with gold.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“I recalled how in my illness I had witnessed three maidens glowing with divinity. Adelheid appeared in the guise of Sapientia, Divine Wisdom, while Guda shone in majesty as Ecclesia, the true and inner Church. Then, from between them, emerged the most splendid figure, glowing in innocence and joy—the black-haired girl, whom I knew now to be Richardis, blazing in my vision before she was even conceived in her mother’s womb. My name is Caritas, Divine Love.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“Hildegard. I am Sapientia. God’s Wisdom. A ray of light from her heart touched mine. Guda had grown into a beauty with her golden curls and emerald eyes, crowned like Adelheid. She offered me a cup overflowing with blood-red wine, her eyes brimming in joyful welcome. Know me, Hildegard. I am Ecclesia, the true and hidden Church. From between these two women, a third appeared, an utter stranger, and so beautiful. Crowned like the others, her long black hair swept to her waist. Her silk gown was as red as the Virgin’s beating heart, and her smile gleamed in tenderness as she stretched out her arms. Hildegard, seek me. My name is Caritas, Divine Love. Before me this trinity of women blazed, the sacred shimmering through them. My fever was broken by the vision of these three divine maidens dancing around a flowing fountain of pure grace. Three women who formed the face of God.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“Trutwib went on speaking, her voice picked up volume and power until I heard her prediction ring out, her words that changed everything. “The one who lives under your wing, my lady, shall grow and grow until she outshines you. You will die, forgotten and obscure, and she shall blaze like the sun.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“How I fevered to study the seven liberal arts: the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“In a true vision, Ecclesia, the Mother Church, had appeared to me as a ravished woman, her thighs bruised and bloody, for her own clergy had defiled her. The prelates preached chastity while allowing young men to be abused. In defending the boy, my daughters and I risked sharing his fate—being cast out and condemned. The prelates would crush my dissent at all costs. Everything I had worked for in my long life might be lost in one blow, leaving me and my daughters pariahs and excommunicants. How could I protect my community now that I was so old, a relic from another time, my once-powerful allies dead?”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen

“In the Scriptures, God appears as Father, and yet the Holy Spirit chose to reveal God’s face to me as Mother.” I never dreamt of calling myself holy, never presumed. Yet God, whom I called Mother, chose to grace even one as flawed as I am with the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit moving through me. And so I became the Mother’s mouthpiece, a feather on Her breath. How was I to describe such a mystery to Guibert? I never sought the visions, and yet they came.”
― Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen