Hadewijch Quotes & Sayings

Love has seven names, / Which, as you know, are appropriate to her; / Chain, light, live coal, and fire - / ... dew, living spring, and hell. — Hadewijch

At that time I also had, for a short while, the strength to bear it. But all too soon I lost external sight of the shape of that beautiful man, and I saw him disappear to nothing, so quickly melting away and fusing together that I could not see or observe him outside of me, nor discern him within me. It was to me at that moment as if we were one without distinction. — Hadewijch

Take care, you who wish / to deal with names / for love. Behind their sweetness / and wrath, nothing endures. / Nothing but wounds and kisses. — Hadewijch

Make haste to Love. — Hadewijch

Although the season is joyful everywhere, / And mountain and valley are all verdant, / That would seem a truly small matter to him / Who has met mischance in love ... — Hadewijch

Do good under all circumstances, but with no care for any profit, or any blessedness, or any damnation, or any salvation, or any martyrdom; but all you do or omit should be for the honor of Love. — Hadewijch

Although I have no fish, / I do not want any frog; / Or any elderberries either, / Instead of a bunch of grapes: / Although I have no love, / I do not want anything else, / Whether Love is gracious to me or hostile. — Hadewijch

I wish to devote all my time / To noble thoughts about great Love. — Hadewijch

First the lover must learn charity and keep God's law. Then he shall be blessed a hundredfold, and he shall do great things without great effort, and bear all pain without suffering. And so his life will surpass human reason indeed. — Hadewijch

The soul who is most untouched is the most like to God. — Hadewijch

What use is it for me to force my nature? / For my nature shall always remain / What it is and conquer what belongs to it, / However men may narrow its path. — Hadewijch

He who lives in despair / takes and gives in vain. — Hadewijch

Be fervent in God, and let nothing grieve you, whatever you encounter. — Hadewijch

For this is love's truth; she joins two in one being, makes sweet sour, strangers neighbors, and the lowly noble. — Hadewijch

The new year has begun for us. / Now must God grant us with love / That we may be able so to begin it / That it may be of value for Love. — Hadewijch

They who live without Love are dead. / But the worst of all deaths is this
/ That the loving soul be cowardly toward Love; / For perfect Love is never cowardly, / But claims its rights, which it lacks. — Hadewijch

Despair makes us serve evil as much as good ... — Hadewijch

May your service of love a beautiful thing; want nothing else, fear nothing else and let love be free to become what love truly is. — Hadewijch

Nowadays this is the way everyone loves himself; people wish to live with God in consolations and repose, in wealth and power, and to share the fruition of his glory. We all indeed wish to be God with God, but God knows there are few of us who want to live as men with his Humanity, or want to carry his cross with him, or want to hang on the cross with him and pay humanity's debt to the full. — Hadewijch

Love is that burning fire which devours everything and shall never, never cease in all the endless ages to come. — Hadewijch

Even if you do the best you can in all things, your human nature must often fall short; so entrust yourself to God's goodness, for his goodness is greater than your failures. — Hadewijch

The New Year has come to us. / God be blessed for it. — Hadewijch

It is written in the code of love: He who strikes the blow is himself struck down. — Hadewijch