Restoring Right Order: The Six Golden Rules of St. Hildegard
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Conversion as Harmony
Saint Hildegard’s Six Golden Rules for Lent 2026
Blessings, dear friend —
The Mother Church leads us into forty days of prayer, fasting, and interior renewal. Lent is not about willpower or self-reinvention. It is about something far deeper: realignment.
Lent is the season when we ask, quietly and honestly:
- Where has my life drifted out of order?
- Where has excess dulled joy?
- Where has rhythm given way to hurry?
Saint Hildegard of Bingen never separates conversion from harmony. For her, repentance is not harsh self-punishment. It is the restoration of right order in mind, body, soul, and daily life.
If Lent calls us to turn toward Christ, it also calls us to restore balance.
From her writings, a pattern emerges — what we often refer to as her Six Golden Rules of living. They are enduring observations about how the human person flourishes when life is lived in proper order.
It is never too late to begin again.
1. Eat and Drink Properly
Healing begins with food
Saint Hildegard observed that healing begins with food. What we eat shapes the strength of the body and the clarity of the mind. Warm, properly prepared, life-giving foods build stability. Disordered nourishment clouds both body and soul.
But her wisdom extends beyond what we eat. How we eat and when we eat also matter.
- Eat calmly.
- Chew thoroughly.
- Do not rush.
- Do not eat too late at night when the body is meant to rest.
Digestion is rhythmic. When meals are ordered, peaceful, and taken at appropriate times, the body works with ease rather than strain.
Have you explored our life-giving true ancient spelt products that restore and renew? Renewal often begins very simply: with what we place on the table, how slowly we receive it, and whether we allow the body proper time to digest and rest.
If you want to fast the Hildegard way, read our blog:
Fasting as Sacred Medicine
You may also wish to explore our Fasting Cure Bundle .
This Lent, fasting is not only about food. We are also invited to fast from harmful words — speech that wounds or divides — and instead embrace peace. A true Hildegardian fast nourishes the body, disciplines the tongue, and restores harmony within and around us.
2. Draw Life Energy from the Four Elements
“Man is formed from the four elements and has his foundation in them. Of these, two are of a spiritual nature and two of a fleshly nature. Fire and air are spiritual; water and earth are corporeal… As the elements hold the world together, so they are responsible for the well-being of the human body. If the elements work properly in the human being, they sustain him and keep him healthy; however, if they do not live harmoniously in him, they disturb him and make him sick.”
Causae et Curae
Fire, air, water, and earth are not abstractions. They are realities we encounter every day in warmth, breath, sunlight, rain, soil, and stone.
We were not made to live sealed off from the natural world. Health requires contact with it.
Step outside. Breathe deeply. Let the body remember what sustains it.
Creation awakens viriditas — the God-given vitality that restores and makes the soul fruitful again.
3. Maintain Balance Between Work and Rest
4. Find Rhythm Between Sleep and Wakefulness
One of the quiet illnesses of modern life is imbalance.
Saint Hildegard emphasizes harmony between work and rest, and rhythm between sleep and wakefulness as balancing forces.
Rest is not laziness. Sleep is not weakness. Both are healing forces.
Excess dulls joy. Moderation restores it. Rhythm restores what chaos erodes.
5. Practice Expelling What Harms
Support the body’s natural clearing
For Saint Hildegard, health requires movement and release. The body must expel what does not belong.
Supporting the body’s clearing processes is cooperation with how it was designed to heal.
You may wish to explore Saint Hildegard’s pear-honey treatment or psyllium seeds .
Clearing prepares the ground for renewal.
6. Practice Christian Virtue to Restore the Healing Force
Perhaps most striking is Saint Hildegard’s insistence that healing is not merely physical.
Virtue restores healing force. Where virtue grows, viriditas flourishes.
Patience, humility, moderation, gratitude, obedience, and joy stabilize the soul. Goals exist to serve virtue, not ego.
Instead of asking, “What do I want to accomplish?” perhaps we ask:
What virtue is God growing in me?
A Hildegardian Lent
A Hildegardian Lent does not demand perfection. It begins with humility, warmth, and attention rather than force.
Seek what restores order. Begin gently. Choose what makes the soul greener. Trust God more than your plans.
Walking the Path Together
As Lent begins, may these Six Golden Rules shape your fasting, steady your prayer, purify your habits, and restore joy to your daily rhythm.
Lent is not meant to make us rigid. It is meant to make us free.
If you are seeking companionship during this holy season, you may wish to explore:
The Harmony Program
Learn About Harmony
Viriditas Living
Explore Viriditas Living
You were not meant to walk this Lent alone.
Healing and growth unfold in relationship — with Christ, with creation, and with one another.
With an abundance of blessings,
Justyna & Maria
Hildegard’s Way
Where food, virtue, and healing walk together