The 10th Day of Christmas. Redeeming "rationalitas"

A Christmas story for grown ups. Inspired by Hildegard of Bingen. For her Rationality lies not in an especially detached way of thinking, but at the heart of Divine birth. In every human heart.

Not exactly Hildegard’s illumination of the angel choirs (see at the bottom of this post) but what AI created when typing in: Hildegard mandala circle "choir of angels." Nonetheless, it captures her theology of rationalitas at the heart of all creation quite well :-)

Dear fellow pilgrim,

Rationality has a bad reputation. Most people understand it as a masculine way of thinking detached from feelings and lived experience.

But for the medieval renaissance woman Hildegard of Bingen rationalitas not only encompasses “the entirety of Divine greening power, ordering wisdom, and self-giving love”¹ but also the mystery of Divine birth we contemplate in the Christmas tradition.

Now that’s different… But what could all that mean?

Well, let me tell you about the “epiphany” I had when I took a little booklet from my bookshelf on the 3d Day of Christmas containing Hildegard’s Christmas homilies. And it is with this thought that I have been walking pregnant, not only since then, but probably since a ve…