Veni Sancte Spiritus

This is, I think, my favourite English translation of the “Golden Sequence,” the Veni Sancte Spiritus. I found it in Maurice Zundel’s classic, The Splendour of the Liturgy (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1939), a book to which I return again and again, and always with a new delight.

Holy Spirit, come and shine
On our souls with beams divine,
Issuing from thy radiance bright.

Come, O Father of the poor,
Ever bounteous of thy store,
Come, our hearts’ unfailing light.

Come, consoler, kindest, best,
Come, our bosom’s dearest guest,
Sweet refreshment, sweet repose.

Rest in labour, coolness sweet,
Tempering the burning heat,
Truest comfort of our woes.

O divinest light, impart
Unto every faithful heart,
Plenteous streams from love’s bright flood.

But for thy Blest Deity,
Nothing pure in man could be:
Nothing harmless, nothing good.

Wash away each sinful stain,
Gently shed thy gracious rain
On the dry and fruitless soil.

Heal each wound and bend each will,
Warm our hearts benumbed and chill,
All our wayword steps control.

Unto all thy faithful just,
Who in thee confide and trust,
Deign thy sevenfold gift to send.

Grant us virtue’s blest increase,
Grant a death of hope and peace,
Grant the joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia.