Hildegard of Bingen wrote a letter about corruption in her time to the Monks of Zwiefalten. The document adapts her words to address modern corruption in public life and society. It warns those who engage in or ignore evil deeds that they were called to imitate God through virtuous behavior but have strayed from justice and morality. If they do not return to spiritual principles and correcting societal ills, ruin will follow. Wisdom from the past can guide the present if we open our eyes to the truth and walk in justice rather than despair.

1. Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) is on record writing a letter regarding corruption of her day.
It was to the Monks of Zwiefalten.
I'm going to take a small liberty with her posthumus blessing I would hope and adapt her
excellent words to show their application to our modern corruption of the despondent public
and its corrupt body politic.
Quote with adjustments in parenthesis:
"Listen, therefore, you who would break out (escape of the enslaved, entrapped, and the
corrupted) in your evil deeds! You were called 'Mountain of the Lord' because you should
imitate the Son of God through your cloistered (read "narrowly defined") behavior.
So why do you transgress the motherly inner realm of love and modesty (read "spirit" or "soul
expression"), like those who on Horeb disciplined their bodies according to the Law (morals,
universal virtues, and spiritual principles) but then went astray on another path?
Or like sentinels at the gate, who call up the guard with loud voice and thereby insidiously clear
a way into the city (using evil or worse evil to fight what you have been led to believe is evil).
Your spirits are like storm-pregnant clouds -- first they give themselves over to slothful anger,
but then they turn about and give themselves in high spirits to bestial filth (arrogant violation
on one end of the pendulum and unquenchable despair at the other end of the pendulum).
And thus you neglect the sacrifice you are called to make and say: 'We don't have the will to
oppose our own natures, for we cannot gird the loins of our bodies since we're born from
Adam.'
For even though your life in the cloister (read "community or respective public or private body
of society) puts you in the palace of the Divine, you don't want to tame the fire in your loins. (in
1

2. your emptied, corrupted spirit.)
You were rescued from the stall of the ass (read: rescued from tyranny - First American
Revolution) and placed by the highest Lord in the exalted service of honor (a divine sanction) in
the festivals of the holy Church (among the great events and intentions of the Universal Source
to see mankind surpass its difficulties and excel in all manners and matters).
Why then are you not ashamed to (as you) run back again like dummies to the stall of the ass?
Alas, in this you are like Balaam who rabid with wounds and burning scars, took his repose in
the land of the shadow of death. (cf. Numbers 31:8 & 16;II Peter 2:16; Revelation 2:14)
Don't, therefore, abandon the holy mountain in scandalous adultery (ally yourself with material
and spiritual corruption in either passive or active form). Woe to the disgrace of the prostitute
who is cast forth abroad! (he/she who is cast forth or flees this nation, its censure, and its
partnered divine/self-correction - by the People for the People) For those who fail against the
holy institution (school of the Soul) go to ruin.
So take hold of the discipline [of the Lord] (extant circumstances) so that you don't wander
(farther) from the ways of justice, as though you had no law (operating principles) and as
though the sun didn't shine over the blessed censer (admonition and correction), so that the
Lord (Creative Source/Source of Universal Soul) isn't angered and that you don't go to ruin far
from the right way.
For ruin is what lies under your feet (it exists now around you) because of your transgressions.
O awesome offering deserving of every honor (recognition of the natural desire by some to
change the course from ruin but in a manner that falls short of virtue), to which neither the
unbelief of idols nor the burden of mortal wounds clings.
Alas, what pain over this misery! For God will throw you down with all your grumbling just like
the Ninevites, unless you hasten quickly to the olive tree of salvation in Christ (virtuous material
and spiritual principles upon which our sanctioned project was originally founded).
2

3. A sweet fragrance steams forth from this tree and it allows the blossoms of the just fulfillment
of the law (purpose and imperative) to sprout (renew; once again gain sanction). Why are you
so twisted in your lies that you don't realize your blindness?
For you are blind, because you have not kept earnestly in mind the guilt (causes) in which you
were born through Adam's fall (your origins as a people - spiritual, national, recognized
potential).
But you have embraced that guilt with laughter and jokes (mockery and misrepresentation), as
though it didn't exist for you. Avoid this so that your salvation may quickly come. Use your
eyes (see your collective condition) and walk the paths of justice (physically act, don't languish
motionless).
-- Wisdom is often universal. The modern world is poorly read and even more poorly self-
directed for their memories rarely include wisdom applicable to the human condition of our
moment - instead my brethren moan and cry in despair, think this is the first time we've ever
experienced such problems, and then proceed to re-invent the wheel in some manner which
devoid of historical wisdom is usually a path toward a greater ruin far from the right way. The
stall of the ass is an acceptable comfort to ignorance - evoking a false security because of
assurances you have not the filled-mind to know as twisted lies and a repose in the land of the
shadow of death is an easy cop-out for the materially and spiritually lazy. Corruption comes in
all forms.
Cy
3