Learning to Listen with Hildegard of Bingen
In a time when the Earth’s wounds feel impossible to ignore—raging fires, polluted waters, vanishing species—many of us find ourselves asking: How do we respond without becoming overwhelmed or numb? Where do we begin?
Centuries before climate science could name these crises, Hildegard of Bingen offered a wisdom that feels strikingly relevant today:
“If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.”
Hildegard, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess, mystic, composer, herbalist, and theologian, understood creation not as a resource to be exploited but as a living, breathing expression of God’s presence. She spoke of viriditas—the greening, life-giving force that flows through all of creation and sustains it. To love creation, for Hildegard, was not sentimental. It was spiritual, embodied, and deeply ethical.
Love as the Beginning of Care
Hildegard’s insight is simple but profound: we protect what we love. Fear alone rarely sustains long-term change. Guilt exhausts us. But love—deep, attentive, reverent love—has the power to transform how we live.
To fall in love with creation is to notice again:
· the quiet intelligence of trees
· the patience of rivers
· the generosity of soil that gives life again and again
It is to recognize that we are not separate from the Earth, but participants in its flourishing. When we live in right relationship with the Earth—giving as well as taking—we discover that caring for creation also heals something within ourselves.’
Listening to the Cries and the Wonders
Falling in love with creation means listening honestly to both its wonders and its cries.
· The wonders invite gratitude, joy, and awe.
· The cries call us to responsibility, humility, and action.
Hildegard believed that spiritual life could never be separated from care for the Earth. Human injustice and environmental degradation, she taught, are deeply connected. When harmony is broken in one place, it reverberates everywhere.
Yet her message is not one of despair. It is a call to reawaken our senses, our compassion, and our courage.
We are invited to step away from the noise and urgency of daily life and return to relationship—with God, with creation, and with one another. Through reflection, shared wisdom, journaling, and walking in the beauty of the grounds, we begin to remember what Hildegard knew so well: that creation is not merely something we use, but someone we belong to.
When we fall in love with creation—slowly, deeply, attentively—we find ourselves changed. And from that place of love, our response becomes not forced, but faithful.
For more details on the upcoming retreat: Falling in Love with Creation use this link https://bonsecoursrcc.org/event/falling-in-love-with-creation/