Offering for the Earth: A Biorhythmic Celebration of Hildegard Von Bingen

Created and performed by Alexandra Palting
Produced by Colleen Eberhardt
Featuring Laura Hill, Isaiah Shim, and the St. Louis Treble Choir (conducted by Paul Heinemann)

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Program

AUTUMN

All of our actions affect the elements, and are in turn disturbed and influenced by the elements. Do not reject these secrets, but make yourselves green with the juice of sweetness, a branching root and a soaring leaf. May you never tire on the path to justice. - Hildegard Von Bingen

O Frondens Virga / Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Hildegard Von Bingen / Greek Liturgy of St. James (translated by Gerard Moultrie)

  • O blooming branch,
    you stand upright in your nobility,
    as breaks the dawn on high:
    Rejoice now and be glad,
    and deign to free us, frail and weakened,
    from the wicked habits of our age;
    stretch forth your hand
    to lift us up aright.

  • O frondens virga,
    in tua nobilitate stans
    sicut aurora procedit:
    nunc gaude et letare
    et nos debiles dignare
    a mala consuetudine liberare
    atque manum tuam porrige
    ad erigendum nos.

My Soul in Stillness Waits

Marty Haugen

If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion. We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice.

Earth Melodies / O Virigissima Virga

Ekaterina Shelakovna / Hildegard Von Bingen

  • 1. O branch of freshest green,
    O hail! Within the windy gusts of saints
    upon a quest you swayed and sprouted forth.

    2. When it was time, you blossomed in your boughs—
    “Hail, hail!” you heard, for in you seeped the sunlight’s warmth
    like balsam’s sweet perfume.

    3. For in you bloomed
    so beautiful a flow’r, whose fragrance wakened
    all the spices from their dried-out stupor.

    4. And they all appeared in full viridity.

    5. Then rained the heavens dew upon the grass
    and all the earth was cheered,
    for from her womb she brought forth fruit
    and for the birds up in the sky
         have nests in her.

    6. Then was prepared that food for humankind,
    the greatest joy of feasts!
    O Virgin sweet, in you can ne’er fail any joy.

    7. All this Eve chose to scorn.

    8. But now, let praise ring forth unto the Highest!

  • 1. O viridissima virga,
    ave, que in ventoso flabro sciscitationis
    sanctorum prodisti.

    2. Cum venit tempus quod tu floruisti in ramis tuis,
    ave, ave fuit tibi, quia calor solis in te sudavit
    sicut odor balsami.

    3. Nam in te floruit
    pulcher flos qui odorem dedit
    omnibus aromatibus que arida erant.

    4. Et illa apparuerunt omnia in viriditate plena.

    5. Unde celi dederunt rorem super gramen
    et omnis terra leta facta est,
    quoniam viscera ipsius frumentum
    protulerunt et quoniam volucres celi nidos
         in ipsa habuerunt.

    6. Deinde facta est esca hominibus
    et gaudium magnum epulantium.
    Unde, o suavis Virgo, in te non deficit ullum gaudium.

    7. Hec omnia Eva contempsit.

    8. Nunc autem laus sit Altissimo.

WINTER

O Viriditas Digiti Dei / Dust and Ashes

Hildegard Von Bingen / Dave Malloy (from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812)

  • O fresh viridity of God’s creative finger, 
    How glorious you are!

  • O viriditas digiti Dei, 
    Tu gloriosa


Christmas Lullaby

Jason Robert Brown (from Songs for a New World, arranged by Mac Huff)

INTERMISSION

During intermission, we encourage you to interact with the plants and technology for yourself!

SPRING

Item de Virginibus

Hildegard Von Bingen

  • O most noble Greenness, 
    rooted in the sun,
    And who shines in bright serenity upon the wheel,
    Nothing on earth can comprehend you,
    You are encircled in the arms of divine mysteries.
    You are radiant as the dawn and burn as the sun

  • O nobilissima viriditas, 
    quae radicas in sole,
    et quae in candida serenitate luces in rota,
    quam nulla terrena excellentia comprehendit,
    tu circumdata es amplexibus divinorum mysteriorum.
    Tu rubes ut aurora et ardes ut solis flama

The Spark of Creation

Stephen Schwartz (from Children of Eden)

God made all parts of creation and directed them to be useful for humankind. But though they aid humankind in the necessities of the body, they must be understood to attend no less to the health of the soul.

The earth cries out to God: “we cannot run and complete our course as we were put in place to do at your command.” The elements utter their complaints as with the loudest shouts to their Creator, not so that they might speak like humans do, but so that they might demonstrate what their oppression means.

A Rock Somewhere / The Seed

Jacob Collier / AURORA

SUMMER

Walls

Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally (from Shucked)

Humankind can neither live nor even exist without creation. The more one learns from the other, the more knowledge grows in him. Therefore, through science, with the help of nature, man puts into action what is vital.

As the winds sweep over the earth, so should you be a spiritual storm. 

Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there; you must be prepared to leap.

Alma Redemptoris Mater / When You Believe

Hildegard Von Bingen / Stephen Schwartz (from Prince of Egypt)

  • Loving Mother of our Redeemer

  • Alma Redemptoris Mater

All translations provided by International Society of St. Hildegard. Learn more about The Fetzer Institute.

The plants for today’s concert were generously donated by members of the St. Louis Garden Club. We would also like to recognize local nurseries who support our parish throughout the year through their generous donations:

We are so happy to uplift the work of The Little Portion Farm, right here here in Howard County, MD.

The Little Portion Farm Spring Plant Sale is open Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., ending Saturday, May 24. Gardeners can also order plants for pick up at the farm online on their website: https://little-portion-farm.square.site/

All proceeds from the plant sale directly support the work of Little Portion Farm in donating more than 20,000 pounds of food annually to partner organizations serving the homeless and working poor in our communities.

Little Portion Farm is a ministry of the Franciscan Friars Conventual and located on the grounds of the Shrine of St. Anthony.

Order Now

Prophets of a Future Not Our Own (Cardinal Dearden, 1979)

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.