‘Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest’: A Hymn for Pentecost
Today is the feast of Pentecost or the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and Blessed Virgin. The Third Person of the Blessed Trinity filled and inspired the apostles and disciples, took away their fear, and made them zealous to follow Jesus’s parting command, “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matt. 28:19)
Pentecost was originally a Jewish feast, the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot. As Jesus said (Matt. 5:17), “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Major Christian feasts and events in the New Testament are frequently tied to Jewish feasts from the Old Testament. Jewish Pentecost commemorates the giving of the Mosaic Law on Mt. Sinai and the first fruits of the wheat harvest. And so, in the Christian Pentecost, we too celebrate the giving of God’s word to people, but this time the Holy Spirit inspires the apostles to preach to everyone instead of God giving the law to Moses specifically for the Jews. Just as the Jews used to bring loaves made of new wheat to the Temple on Pentecost, so Jesus, the Bread of Life, now feeds us with His Body. The Jewish Pentecost is the foundation and foreshadowing for the Christian Pentecost.
Below are key Bible verses from the story of Pentecost, as it is related in Acts of the Apostles:
“All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren… And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded in mind, because that every man heard them speak in his own tongue. And they were all amazed, and wondered, saying: Behold, are not all these, that speak, Galileans? And how have we heard, every man our own tongue wherein we were born?…But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke to them…
This Jesus hath God raised again, whereof all we are witnesses. Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this which you see and hear…Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” —Acts 1:14, 2:1-8, 14, 32-33, 38
The Holy Spirit comes to us still today through prayer, through faith, through the Church, through the sacraments. One beautiful and popular hymn that invokes the Holy Spirit is “Come, Holy Ghost,” or, in Latin, Veni, Creator Spiritus.
“Come, Holy Ghost” by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles:
The full lyrics:
“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
And in our hearts take up thy rest;
Come with thy grace and heav’nly aid
To fill the hearts which thou hast made,
To fill the hearts which thou hast made.
O Comforter, to thee we cry,
Thou heav’nly gift of God most high;
Thou font of life and fire of love,
And sweet anointing from above,
And sweet anointing from above.
To ev’ry sense thy light impart
And shed thy love in ev’ry heart.
To our weak flesh, thy strength supply;
Unfailing courage from on high,
Unfailing courage from on high.
O grant that we through thee may come
To know the Father and the Son,
And hold with firm, unchanging faith,
That thou art Spirit of them both,
That thou art Spirit of them both.
Praise be to thee, Father and Son
And Holy Spirit, with them one;
And may the Son on us bestow
The gifts that from the Spirit flow,
The gifts that from the Spirit flow.”
And below is Veni, Creator Spiritus:
“Veni, Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita, imple superna gratia quae tu creasti pectora.
Qui diceris Paraclitus, altissima donum Dei, fons vivus, ignis, caritas, et spiritalis unctio.
Tu, septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae, Tu rite promissum Patris, sermone ditans guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus: infunde amorem cordibus: infirma nostri corporis virtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius, pacemque dones protinus: ductore sic te praevio vitemus omne noxium.
Per te sciamus da Patrem, noscamus atque Filium; Teque utrisque Spiritum credamus omni tempore.
Deo Patri sit gloria, et Filio, qui a mortuis surrexit, ac Paraclito, in saeculorum saecula. Amen.”
Have a blessed Pentecost!