Embracing Inclusiveness
Advocating Mercy
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May 18, 2024Dear Friends,
Today our Pentecost Liturgy includes the sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus, sometimes called the Golden Sequence. In the early centuries of the Church, many of the Holy days and feast days had their own musical sequence. Sequences were used to extend the Alleluia chorus to accompany a lengthy Gospel procession. Following the Council of Trent, most of the sequences were dropped, except for the ones on Easter, Corpus Christi, All Souls Day, and Pentecost. Today, typically only the sequences for Easter and Pentecost are still used.
Here is today’s sequence, calling on the Holy Spirit to come among us for Pentecost. Enjoy!
Peace, Dcn. SteveVeni, 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.
