At twelve years old, Mechthild received what she called "a greeting from the Holy Spirit" — a flooding of divine love so intense that it never left her. For sixty years, she lived with this presence, a Beguine and later a nun, writing poetry that scandalized some and transformed others.
Her book, "The Flowing Light of the Godhead," is unlike any other medieval spiritual text. It is wild, erotic, dangerous — the love between God and the soul described in the language of human passion. "Lord, love me mightily," she wrote. "Love me often, and love me long."
"I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human senses.
There I shall remain and circle evermore."
Mechthild's God is not the stern judge of medieval theology but the passionate lover of the Song of Songs. The soul and God long for each other, seek each other, and when they meet, their union is described in terms that made the Church deeply uncomfortable.
"The soul speaks to God: 'You are my resting-place, my love, my secret peace, my deepest longing. I cannot live without you.' And God replies: 'You are my pillow, my bridal bed, my secret chamber, my highest desire.'"
"The soul goes to God alone
And tells him all her desires and needs.
He listens gladly. He understands the soul.
Then he takes her in his divine arms
And presses her to his fiery heart.
Thus united, she rises higher and higher —
Until she is so close to God
That she cannot say: 'Lord, I and Thou.'
She can only say: 'Lord, we.'"
In her old age, blind and sick, Mechthild entered the convent at Helfta, where she continued dictating until she could no longer speak. Her last words concerned the "greeting" she had received at twelve: "It has never left me. It has never failed."
Her book was nearly destroyed by critics who found it too dangerous. It survived by accident, one copy escaping the flames. That copy would influence Meister Eckhart, Dante, and centuries of seekers who recognized in her words their own longing.
Teaching 51
God is the passionate lover of the soul. The divine-human encounter is not cold duty but fiery embrace. You cannot dance unless the Lord leads. Leap into love, from love into knowledge, from knowledge into enjoyment, and beyond all human senses. There, circling evermore, you find home.