Favourite Prayers to the Holy Ghost (II)

Blessed Columba Marmion (1858–1923) wrote this prayer to the Holy Spirit at the Abbey of Mont-César in Louvain on Christmas 1908. It is part of his Consecration to the Holy Trinity:

O Holy Spirit,
Love of the Father and of the Son,
establish Thyself as a furnace of love in the centre of our hearts,
and ever transport on high our thoughts, our affections, and our actions,
like ardent flames,
even into the bosom of the Father.
Let our entire life be a Gloria Patri,
et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Virginie Danion (1819–1900) founded the Community of Thanksgiving (L’Action de Grâces) of Mauron in France. At the end of the Octave of Pentecost she writes, “Oh! How I would want to prolong this week of the Holy Spirit! With what regret do it see it come to an end.” Then she addresses the Holy Spirit:

O Holy Spirit, soul of my soul, heart of my heart,
I want always to find Thee in the most intimate place of my being.
In this humble and hidden sanctuary thou wilt not be forsaken;
no longer wilt thou remain inactive,
and all that is within me shall obey Thee.
It is true that my wickedness, my faults, and my miseries
will often oppose Thee,
but Thou, all-powerful, wilt overturn, or break, or annihilate
all that would rise up against Thee.
The abyss that is Thine shall fill up the abyss that is mine.
Abyssus abyssum invocat.

I find that Virginie Danion’s prayer has, however remotely, something of John Donne’s magnificent Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee,’and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.