A letter from Elisabeth of Schoenau ()

Translated letter:

The divine voice speaking in the heart of a small worm-person admonishes you who have built yourself a habitation in Nuwinburg. Choose for yourselves the serene light and bring true peace into your midst and your souls will delight in fullness (Is. 55:2). Walk like beloved sons in the path of contemplation of the Lord, which you have chosen. Climb the high mountain where you will find a fountain of water and flood your hearts. Joyfully drink in the waters from the fountain of the Savior and say, “We who live bless the Lord” (Ps. 113:18). There are some among you who appear to me as good and peaceful, and others who are evil and perverse, who give their foolish hearts to the world and delight in it in many ways. Seeing this, I admonish the good to become better and the evil to be converted and live because we must serve one God from whom all goodness and all sanctity come. Everything in heaven and on the earth serves God; you too must serve Him in the vesture of monastic piety, so that your interior piety may be pleasing to Him. Be like the angels of God whose mouths are always open, praising and blessing the one who lives for ever and ever. Amen. (1) If you do these things which have been described here and other things like them, and flee pride and every impurity, you will avoid polluting your minds with great impurities and angering your heavenly Father and vanishing from the just life, that is, the way of His contemplation. Without doubt He will prepare for you starry mansions and unfading crowns. May He deign to offer them to you, He who is the font and source of all goodness. (2)

Original letter:

Vos, qui in Nuwimbire habitaculum construxistis, admonet vox divina in cor cuiusdam vermiculi hominis dicens: Eligite vobis serenum lumen et adducite in vos pacem veram, et delectabitur in crassitudine anima vestra. Ambulate sicut filii karissimi in via contemplationis domini, quam elegistis, et ascendite in montem excelsum, ubi est fons atque, et redundate cor vestrum. Haurite aquas in gaudio de fonte salvatoris, et dicite: Nos qui vivimus, benedicimus domino. Sunt enim inter vos aliqui homines, qui mihi boni et pacifici videntur, quidam etiam mali et perversi, qui dant insipiens cor eorum seculo, et delectantur in eo multis modis. Propter hoc moneo bonos, ut in melius proficiant, malos autem, ut convertantur, et vivant, quia oportet nos uni deo militare, a quo est omnis bonitas, omnis sanctitas, omniaque in celo et in terra ministrant ei, cui decet vos ministrare in vestitu religionis, ut intrinsecus appareat religio vestra beneplacens deo, et estole sicut angeli dei, qui semper inhiant ei laudantes et benedicentes viventem in secula seculorum. Amen. Quod et si faceritis hec, que predicta sunt, et alia his similia, fugite et superbiam, et omnem inmundiciam, ne polluatur mens vestra tantis inmunidiciis, ne irritetur pater vester celestis in vobis, et ne pareatis de via iusta, id est de via contemplationis eius. Procul dubio preparabit vobis sidereas mansiones et inmarcescibilem coronam. Quam vobis prestare dignetur, qui est fons et origo totius bonitatis.

Historical context:

A letter of spiritual advice to both the good and the bad brothers.

Scholarly notes:

(1) This “Amen” suggests the original conclusion of the letter, which is how it is transmitted in Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek Vindob. Pal MS 488. (2)This translation is copyrighted by Anne Clark. For permission to reproduce, contact Paulist Press. 

Printed source:

Die Visionen der hl. Elisabeth und die Schriften der Aebte Ekbert und Emecho von Schönau, ed. F.W.E. Roth (Brünn: Verlag der Studien aus dem Benedictiner- und Cistercienser-Orden, 1884), Bk.6, ch.8, p.143-44; trans. Anne L. Clark, The Complete Works of Elisabeth of Schönau (New York: Paulist Press, 2000), 8.