The Healing Journey

June 8, 2025

Make Our Hearts Overflow With Love…

One of the oldest hymns to the Holy Spirit, which most Catholic school children learn at a young age, is “Veni, Creator Spiritus,” or “Come, Holy Spirit, Creator Blessed.” It is often sung on the Feast of Pentecost, which is today, when we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the disciples in the upper room. This invocation to the Holy Spirit is almost 1500 years old and is believed to have been composed by a 9th-century German monk, Rabanus Maurus (776-856), who was an archbishop and saint.

The hymn has been translated into other languages, but in its original Latin, it is used at Vespers, church dedications, and sacraments, when the Holy Spirit is invoked. A plenary indulgence is granted when it is sung on January 1 or Pentecost.

One of the most widely used hymns, it is sung when the College of Cardinals comes into the Sistine Chapel as they gather to select a new pope. Because the guidance of the Holy Spirit is so necessary in the life of the Church, the hymn is also sung when synods are convened, monarchs are crowned, bishops are consecrated and priests are ordained.

When it is sung in Gregorian Chant, the tune that is used came from Kempten Abbey about the year 1000.

Hear “Veni Creator Spiritus” https://youtu.be/HEKuxUOPzk8?si=urBaJOLO34C-rucG

Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest;
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry, O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known; Thou, finger of God’s hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father, Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o’erflow with love;
With patience firm and virtue high, the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread, and grant us Thy peace instead;
So shall we not, with Thee for guide, turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow the Father and the Son to know;
And Thee, through endless times confessed, of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be glory given,
With Thou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in Earth and Heaven. Amen.

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