Veni, Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita,
Imple superna gratia quae tu creasti, pectora.
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and make our hearts your place of rest;
Come with your grace and heav’nly aid, and fill the hearts which you have made.
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As our Pentecost and Trinity celebrations come to a close, I am reminded of one of my favorite hymns – Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest (Tune: KOMM, GOTT SCHÖPFER). In the hymn, the Church offers a prayer of supplication to the Holy Spirit to bring life and love and light to our hearts through the truth of the triune God revealed in Holy Scripture.
The hymn was originally used for the Festival of Pentecost, but around the 11th century, it began to be used for ordination services. For years at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, the hymn has been used as the opening hymn for the Call Day service the day before graduation. Having attended a number of those services, including my own, it’s quite an experience to hear hundreds of believers sing all seven verses at the top of their lungs with brass and organ.
[Want to witness this experience, but can't attend the actual service? Well, for some years now, the WELS has streamed the Seminary Call Day service online on Streams - the WELS online media site. The Call Day service begins tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 10:00 AM CDT. Here's the link if you'd like to watch the service live!]
C.T. Aufdemberge explains about the hymn in Christian Worship: Handbook…
The tenth-century Latin hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus has been praised as the greatest Latin hymn ever composed next to the Te Deum laudamus. It is most often ascribed to Rhabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz. The earliest use of the hymn was at Vespers during the week of Pentecost and it came to be used at Terce (9 a.m., the hour that the apostles received the Holy Spirit) in the late tenth century. The singing of this hymn in medieval services was apparently done with great dignity, accompanied by the use of incense, lights, bells, and rich vestments. The earliest mention of the hymn for the ordination service is its use in 1049 at the Synod of Rheims. In 1307 it was included with the English coronation rite for Edward II in the Liber Regalis, and has been used continuously at English coronations ever since. It originally had six stanzas, but soon a doxology and then other stanzas were added. Pre-Reformation German versions are documented from the 12th century on and are probably older than that. Martin Luther’s seven-stanza version, Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist of 1524, appeared in EEH. Edward Caswall’s seven-stanza translation was first published in his Lyra Catholica (1849).
KOMM, GOTT SCHÖPFER, really an adaptation of the VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS chant melody, was originally printed with Martin Luther’s text in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche lieder auffs new gebessert (Wittenberg, 1533). The setting (in CW) is from TLH, altered.
(Christian Worship: Handbook, C.T. Aufdemberge, Northwestern Publishing House: 1997, 204-205)
Verse 1 of the hymn is above. The rest of the Latin and English text of the hymn is provided below. May the Son on us bestow the gifts that from the Spirit flow!
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Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest (Veni, Creator Spiritus)
Text: attr. Rhabanus Maurus (776-856); tr. Edward Caswall, 1814-78, alt.
Christian Worship 177/178, Lutheran Service Book 498/499, The Lutheran Hymnal 174
To You, the Counselor, we cry, to You the gift of God most high;
Qui Paracletus diceris, donum Dei altissimi,
The fount of life, the fire of love, the soul’s anointing from above.
Fons vivus, ignis, charitas, et spiritalis unctio.
In You, with graces sevenfold, we God’s almighty hand behold
Tu septiformis munere, dextrae Dei tu digitus,
While You with tongues of fire proclaim to all the world His holy name.
Tu rite promisso patris, sermone ditans guttura.
Your light to ev’ry thought impart, and shed Your love in ev’ry heart;
Accende lumen sensibus, infunde amorem cordibus,
The weakness of our mortal state with deathless might invigorate.
Infirma nostri corporis vitute firmans perpeti.
Drive far away our wily foe, and Your abiding peace bestow;
Hostem repellas longius, pacemque dones protinus,
If You are our protecting guide, no evil can with us abide.
Ductore sic te praevio vitemus omne noxium.
Teach us to know the Father, Son, and You, from both, as Three in One
Per te sciamus, da, Patrem, noscamus atque Filium,
That we Your name may ever bless and in our lives the truth confess.
Te utriusque Spiritum credamus omni tempore.
Praise we the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, with them One,
Sit laus Patrie cum Filio, Sancto simul Paracleto,
And may the Son on us bestow the gifts that from the Spirit flow!
Nobisque mittat Filius charisma Sancti Spiritus.
