The Lesser Feast of Hadewijch of Brabant, Poet and Mystic

Learn more about today’s Feast

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Page numbers listed are from The Book of Common Prayer.

Opening Sentence, page 103

Officiant: O God, make speed to save us.

People: O Lord, make haste to help us.

All: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

Psalm 57:6-11, page 664

6 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *
                and your glory over all the earth.
7 My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; *
                I will sing and make melody.
8 Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; *
                I myself will waken the dawn.
9 I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord; *
                I will sing praise to you among the nations.
10 For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, *
                and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
11 Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *
                and your glory over all the earth.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
                as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Reading: John 19:31-37

Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.” And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

All: Thanks be to God.

Reflection: Hadewijch of Brabant, Poet and Mystic

Little is known about the life of Hadewijch apart from her influential corpus of spiritual writings. She was almost certainly a Beguine, a member of a group of women who lived in a quasi-monastic community but did not take formal vows. Instead, they pledged to be bound by the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience only as long as they lived in the community.

The Beguine movement was particularly attractive to women who could not afford the (often substantial) dowry that was required by many monasteries, but the level of Hadewijch’s education suggests that she was probably from a wealthy background. Her writings show that, in addition to her native language of Dutch, she was conversant with theological writings in both Latin and French, and also with French courtly poetry.

Hadewijch is considered one of the creators of Dutch lyrical poetry, which includes compositions in which she co-opts the French trouvêre form to extoll the love between the speaker and God rather than worldly love. She also wrote poems in couplets on religious themes, as well as prose letters and a Book of Visions in which she engages Christ in dialogue.

In a number of her works, she explicitly genders Love as female:

“Of great Love in high thought

I long to think, day and night.

She with her terrible might

so opens my heart.

I must surrender all to her.”

And also,

“Sweet as Love’s nature is,

Where can she come by the strange hatred

With which she continually pursues me,

And that pierces the depths of my heart with storm?

I wander in darkness without clarity,

Without liberating consolation, and in strange fear.”

While her works were widely known in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by the time of the sixteenth century she had been largely forgotten. However, recent scholarly research has uncovered the profound impact that her writings had on better-known male mystics such as Meister Eckhart and John of Ruusbroec, which has resulted in increased attention and appreciation for the originality and import of her works.

The Prayers, pages 106-107

Officiant: Lord have mercy.

People: Christ have mercy.

Officiant: Lord have mercy.

All:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Officiant: Lord, hear our prayer;

People: And let our cry come to you.

Officiant: Let us pray.

Triune God of Love, overwhelming and all-encompassing: Visit us in our solitude and in our companionship, and draw us ever more deeply into union with you, who are ever present and ever mysterious; that we, like your servant Hadewijch, might know you ever more fully, even as we have been fully known. Amen.

Intercessions and Thanksgivings

Dismissal, page 107

Officiant: Let us bless the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

Officiant: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.