"Connected with love, there is true forgiveness
because suddenly you see through the eyes of the other."


Love without knowledge is darkness to the wise soul.
Knowledge without revelation is as the pain of hell.
Revelation without death cannot be endured.

Mechthild von Magdeburg
(A 13th Century female visionary)

Historical Personalities: Mechthild von Magdeburg
Information about her life is scarce. She belonged to the so-called Begins, a Medieval movement who dedicated their lives to God.

Mechthild von Magdeburg was born in 1207 into a wealthy family in the arch bishopric of Magdeburg. She left the courtly life for, in her view, it was full of vanity and conceit, and searched for alternative ways of living.

What is striking about Mechthild von Magdeburg is her connected, mystical language and erotic connection with God and the Creation. According to her own words she was touched by the Holy Ghost for the first time at the age of 12. This changed her life completely. From then on she expected everything from God and nothing from herself. Courageously she broke with all the relations and securities within society and decided to live her life entirely for God. At the age of about 20 she let go of everything that seemed to be safe for a human being like wealth, honour, and family and spent over 30 years in a community in the city of Magdeburg being poor and unknown.

The Begin-movement was characterized by the fact that it was close to the people and carried by women. Mechthild defended herself courageously against clergy and stagnating orders and was pursued, accused and degraded. "Nobody is so fast in his chase, so mean..., so bad in his anger that he could destroy the heaven I live in" was her reply to the manifold hostilities. Later she seemed to be highly esteemed, otherwise, she could not have afforded to utter daring statements like..."That God calls the Masters of the Dome bucks, He does, because their flesh smells unchaste."
She spent her late years in the Cistercian Convent Helfta, a women's community, whose goal was to combine religion and science.
"Will I not be able to win without weapons?" was the central question of the women's movement of the Begin Community.

Reference Site:
http://www.sabine-lichtenfels.de/Ring_der_Kraft/Archiv/e-june2002.html

참 사랑...
영원한 사랑...
13세기 독일북부 지방에 살았던 영성가의 시를 읽다가
생각에 빠졌다.

---------
Mechthild von Magdeburg from: "Das fließende Licht der Gottheit"
(The Flowing Light of Divinity)

"God says:
When I shine, you must glow. When I flow, you must wave.
If you were to sigh you would draw my divine heart into yourself.
When you cry for me, I take you into my arms.
When you woo, however, the two of us will become one.
And when we are one, separation can never take place again,
only delightful waiting will take place between us.

And the soul speaks:
Lord, I shall wait with my hunger, with my thirst,
with my hunting and searching until the playful hour comes,
when chosen words will flow from thy divine mouth,
words no one but the soul alone can hear when it is undressed from the earth, l
aying its ear by thy mouth, learning about the treasure of love."



About Perception and Delight

Love without perception seems like darkness to the knowing soul.
Perception without delight seems like agony....

You shall pray that God will woo you, long and often,
so you will became chaste and beautiful and holy.

Oh Father, woo me powerfully and long and often, the more often you woo me,
the more beautiful I become, the longer you woo me the holier I become, here on earth.

What God replies to the soul:
That I woo you often, derives from my nature, because I am love. That I woo you powerfully derives from my desire because I desire to be wooed powerfully as well. That I woo you long, derives from my eternity because I am endless.