Mechthild

When writing a reflection, I often peek at the church calendar to see if there are any feasts or fasts of note. This week I found that Monday is the feast day for Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, Thursday is Ascension Day (!), and Saturday celebrates the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Much to reflect on with any one of these!  But Wednesday, Wednesday remembers Mechthild of Magdeburg, Mystic, born in 1282.

Now I tend to be up on my mystics, but every once in a while the calendar surprises and humbles me. I didn’t even know where Magdeburg was (about 100 km southwest of Berlin). Mechthild may be a Middle Low German version of “Matilda.” Her writings are in a compendium, “The Flowing Light of Divinity.” She was a Beguine, a lay religious order, and may have later become a Dominican and then a Cistercian.

I offer just this one small passage from her writings:

[Of all that God has shown me]*

Of all that God has shown me

I can speak just the smallest word,

Nor more than a honey bee

Takes on his foot

From an overspilling jar.

CJ+

* By Mechthild of Magdeburg

Translated By Jane Hirshfield

Copyright Credit: Mechtild of Madgeburg, “[Of all that God has shown me]” translated by Jane Hirshfield, from Women in Praise of the Sacred (New York: Harper Collins, 1994).

Source: Women in Praise of the Sacred (HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1994)