Liber Divinorum Operum: Prima Pars - Prima Visio, IV - Intro. (16)

("Love of the Trinity" by Lynne Hartman. Source)

That the devoted faith embraces the excellence of divine charity, and through this God is recognized one in Trinity; and that the same faith had merited God Himself protecting humans restores to the heavenly things.

Nathaniel's translation of the second phrase:

..and by the merit of that same faith, God Himself, by protecting humans, restores them to heavenly things.

Quod devota fides excellentiam divinae charitatis complectatur, et per hanc Deus in trinitate unus agnoscatur; quodque eiusdem fidei merito ipse Deus homines protegendo ad coelestia reducat

Commentary:

This is another chapter heading introducing us into part four of the first vision. I had a hard time capturing the essence of the second phrase, but since this is only an introduction the elements are more important than the relationship between them which will be developed by St. Hildegard in what follows.

Charity is the unitive power of the Trinity. Here, we could almost say that the Trinity is One because of Divine Love. The Simplicity of the Triune God is not intellectual - it is due to intense love. Reason does not surmount difference and division - love does. Charity is so strong, in fact, that the three most uniquely different persons are united by Her in their very being. Love, in the Trinity, does not just unite separate beings - it is their being, one in being, without being the same or destroying the uniqueness of each one.

What makes us unique is not the most important aspect of our being. Love is what is most important, and love unites us to one another beyond our differences, beyond what makes us unique, without suppressing uniqueness. For the Trinity, it is more important for the heart to grasp that they are One, than for the mind to grapple with how there are three.

A faith that embraces Trinitarian Love is protected by God Himself, and this faith is one that Divinizes the believer.

Liber Divinorum Operum: Prima Pars - Prima Visio, III (15)

Hence Her face is of such great beauty and brightness, that you are able more easily to look into the sun than it [her face], because the abundance of Charity and the gleam of Her gifts is in such great eminence, that all understanding of human knowledge, which can grasp intellectually diverse realities in the soul, is thus transcended so that by no means it may grasp Her in the senses. Yet this is made clear in meaning so that by it the former be recognized in faith, which by the seeing eyes is not seen visibly.

Unde eius facies tantae pulchritudinis et claritatis est, ut facilius solem quam ipsam inspicere possis, quoniam largitas charitatis in tanta eminentia et coruscatione donorum suorum est, ut omnem intellectum humanae scientiae, qua in anima diversas res intelligere potest, ita transcendat ut eam nullo modo in sensu suo capere valeat. Sed hic in significatione ostenditur ut per ipsam ille in fide cognoscatur, qui visibilibus oculis visibiliter non videtur.

Commentary:

The extent to which we can know and understand the world around us - the very power we have to know - is as though weakened when it faces the reality of Charity. We are able to grasp, to capture, to contain as it were, the intelligibility of the realities around us. But if you would attempt to know, to understand, to comprehend the sun by staring at it, it would cause you pain and you would be unable to grasp it. If even the sun is impossible to grasp by the senses, the brightness of Charity and the "gleam of her gifts," exceeds us even more. And yet, at the same time, with faith even our eyes become "seeing eyes." The vision's meaning revealed, we can perceive the blinding light of Charity in Creation through faith.