Trumpets of God

Listen now, O my anxious daughter....

Those who long to complete God's works must always bear in mind that they are fragile vessels, for they are only human. They must always bear in mind what they are and what they will be.....

They can only sing the mysteries of God like a trumpet, which only returns a sound but does not function unassisted, for it is Another who breathes into it that it might give forth a sound. But let them put on the breastplate of faith, those who are mild, gentle, poor, and afflicted, like the Lamb, and in character they are like guileless children....

O my daughter, may God make you a mirror of life. I too cower in the puniness of my mind, and am greatly wearied by anxiety and fear. Yet from time to time I resound a little, like the dim sound of a trumpet from the Living Light.

Hildegard of Bingen, Letter 55, to Elisabeth of Schoenau