The Greening Power of God

By Rev. Elizabeth Rechter, Executive Director

In the Northern Hemisphere of Planet Earth, it is spring. For some it is not as evident, with snow still falling, but slowly and surely, much is happening at the depths. 

One of the most hopeful realities for me is that spring is not a choice. No one can cancel it this year. No one can steal it or kill it. It can be ignored, but not stopped. Spring will spring, and without our help. 

Hildegard von Bingen, the German mystic of the 12C, has been a treasured companion of mine through her writings, music, and art. She was a student of spring. It was most certainly a spiritual experience for her each year. Living in the northern European climate of Bingen, Germany, this change of season must have been something she waited for like a sailor watching for land after long months out at winter’s sea. For her, it was more than a season; it was how she understood God. A life force rising up in the whole created order.  A higher power, mysterious, renewing, healing, restoring. She named it Veriditas, God’s greening power.

Might we accept that we, too, are part of the earth, and that this greening is going on in us as well? Mysteriously working at our depths, not of our doing, but part of our being? Preparing us for the next season of our life, whatever it may be?

I was listening recently to a live interview with a Ukrainian woman. It is hard fully to understand the overwhelm of her life, but when she said in broken English, “I can’t more,” her words resonated in me.  I feel this. I can’t more. 

When I find myself here, I find time for stillness to listen, not with my mind, but with the ear of my heart.  Listening, when I can, with the earth. 

Tell me your despair and I will tell you mine, Mary Oliver is known to ask the trees and the lake. What is most real in me, if I take time to notice the greening power of God in me? Not a prayer I have formed, but one that the greening One is praying through me. 

I can’t more, we can’t more, but God can more. 

I don’t know how the sap begins to flow. I don’t know how the meadow begins to green. I don’t know how the trees put forth their leaves. But they do, even after the severest of winters.

Can we trust the greening power of God now to bring forth new life for us beyond our knowing? Can we surrender to God’s life-giving force after the long winter? This kind of trust requires the mind to enter the heart. The mind might not believe it, but the heart, like the earth, knows. This is a season for calling upon a power greater than our own. Deeper than our own. Not in our control, but for us, for our healing and wholeness.

“O most honored Greening Force,
You who roots in the Sun;
You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel
that earthly excellence fails to comprehend.
You are enfolded
in the weaving of divine mysteries.
You redden like the dawn
and you burn: flame of the Sun.”

–  Hildegard von Bingen, Causae et Curae

Spring Blessings for your Journey, 

Elizabeth+

On Saturday, May 21st Stillpoint is offering a One Day retreat with the creative mystic Hildegard of Bingen. I hope you will come and meet her and spend the day with her. Let her heart speak to you of the greening power of God.