Mechthild of Magdeburg Quotes

“You shine into my soul
Like the sun against gold.”
― Mechthild of Magdeburg, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of The Godhead: The Revelations of Mechthild of Magdeburg

“O du unermesslicher Schatz in deiner Fülle!
[…]
Wie weh mir dann nach dir ist,
wenn du mich schonen willst,
das könnten dir alle Kreaturen nicht wirklich sagen,
wenn sie meine Klage vorbringen würden,
denn ich leide unmenschliche Not;
Der leibliche Tod wäre mir weit willkommener
[…]
Deswegen muss ich eine schwere Krankheit erdulden,
denn du hältst mich gebunden,
dies Band ist stärker, als ich es bin,
Daher kann ich nicht von der Liebe frei werden.

Ich rufe nach dir mit gewaltiger Sehnsucht
Und kläglicher Stimme,
ich warte auf dich, schweren Herzens,
ich kann nicht ruhen, ich brenne
Unauslöschlich in deiner heißen Liebe
[…]
Ach, Herr, da du mir alles entzogen hast, was ich von dir habe,
so laß mir doch aus Gnade jene Gabe,
die du jedem Hund von Natur aus verliehen hast,
nämlich, daß ich dir getreu bleibe in meiner Not
Ohne jedes Aufbegehren.”
― Mechthild von Magdeburg, Mechthild von Magdeburg "Das fließende Licht der Gottheit": Nach der Einsiedler Handschrift in kritischem Vergleich mit der gesamten Überlieferung. ... des Mittelalters, 101)

“While God's favor cannot be earned or effected by human actions, one can remove the obstacles to God's action in the soul by getting beyond oneself (iu-berkommen) and by having become nothing (ze nihte wor-den).”
― Frank Tobin, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“...town of Magdeburg, where she knew but one person; and even this one friendship she considered a spiritual liability, since she feared that, because of it, God might withdraw the spiritual divine love and contempt of the world that she sought.”
― Frank Tobin, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“Mechthild's basic assertion about the human heart is its insatiable longing for God. It comes to the fore as the infinite relationship reveals itself. Humans as finite beings reach out toward the infinite being of God. And the goal, for Mechthild, is attained in a vital infinite relationship of heights and depths which is stirred by intense emotions. It is only to pure longing that God reveals himself and says: When I shine, you shall glow. When I flow, you shall become wet. When you sigh, you draw my divine heart into you... ...a blissful abiding prevails between us.”
― Frank Tobin, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“Mechthild's book is a phenomenon that should not be viewed in isolation as one mystical document among all the documents of mysticism. Rather, it is the expression of a basic human drive that comes to the surface, sometimes more, sometimes less. To these basic human drives we can reckon hunger, love, sex, and a yearning for God. This last-mentioned drive appears to have been so smothered by the others that today we scarcely still perceive it as a basic drive. And yet, the testimony of the mystics teaches us that the human person in its capacity for God (capax Dei) soars above all other recognized drives and surpasses them in a marvelous and terrifying way, once we have been awakened by the spark of God's spirit or God's love. In the face of this bursting forth of a passion for God, everything else suddenly retreats. An important characteristic of this passion for God is that it irrevocably prevents us from falling back into an all too vapid and tame existence. The passion for God powerfully pushes aside all merely worldly concerns in order to appropriate our entire vitality and our life, in all its aspects, for itself. What thereby occurs is that we become separated and detached from all that is familiar, so that we might give ourself over with total commitment to the demands of what is eternal.”
― Frank Tobin, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“His eyes into my eyes

His heart into my heart

His soul into my soul

Untiringly closed”
― Mechthild of Magdeburg, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead

“I would gladly die of love
if it could happen to me”
― Mechthild of Magdeburg, Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead