For Pentecost Sunday…
Happy Pentecost! May the Holy Spirit be your inspiration!
This Sunday’s Mass offers us a dynamic pause for our meditation: As the Liturgy of the Word progresses, the Sequence, a prayer of poetry and praise takes places before the Alleluia and the Gospel. This happens twice a year, at Easter and, again, at Pentecost, each with its own Sequence to mark these blessed occasions.
To prepare for Mass this weekend, let’s spend a little time asking the Holy Spirit to guide us with the words and phrases of the Sequence’s prayer, Veni, Sancte Spiritus. (The words are printed below.)
As you pray with them, which images from the prayer come to mind? Are there areas of need in your life? Are there areas where more light is needed? We can bring all this to the Spirit and ask for increases in his benevolent gifts, and for our growth in virtue. Pentecost Sunday offers many blessing for our personal spiritual growth, and for the life of the Church.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia.
There are many renditions of the Vene, Sancte Spiritus set to music. This is one sung by a university chamber choir that you may enjoy.
Come, Holy Spirit!
