Prayer to the Holy Spirit: Veni Creator, Pentecost Sequence and Come, Holy Spirit

Before the sermon, before Confirmation and at Pentecost, the Church has for centuries called upon the Holy Spirit with the same words. Anyone looking for a prayer to the Holy Spirit finds three great texts in the tradition: the short “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful”, the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the Pentecost Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus. This guide gives you all three in Latin and in English, explains their origin and names the indulgences with which the Church has recommended them.

What is the best-known prayer to the Holy Spirit?

The best-known prayer to the Holy Spirit is the short “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of thy love”, in Latin Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium. The Missal has it at Pentecost; it is prayed with versicle and collect.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.
V. Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur;
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae.
Oremus. Deus, qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti: da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere; et de eius semper consolatione gaudere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
V. Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray. O God, who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Latin: Preces et pia opera, Rome 1952, no. 287. English: traditional form. The German prayer book Jesus, meine Liebe! (Regensburg 1875, pp. 63 f., “Before the sermon”) has the longer form.

A Regensburg prayer book of 1875 hands down the longer form with the clause “who hast gathered the nations of all tongues in the unity of the faith” (translated from the German). This clause recalls the first Pentecost, when the Apostles “began to speak with divers tongues” (coeperunt loqui variis linguis, Acts 2:4). In the 1962 Missale Romanum the short petition stands in the Alleluia of the Mass of Pentecost. The rubric prescribes kneeling at these words: Hic genuflectitur. The versicle comes from Psalm 103:30. If you can pray only one sentence, take the first.

What are the words of the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus?

The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus has seven strophes and begins “Come, Creator Spirit, visit the minds of thy faithful”. It invokes the Holy Spirit as Paraclete, gift of God and finger of the Father’s right hand, and asks for light, love, peace and right faith in the Holy Trinity.

Veni, Creator Spiritus,
Mentes tuorum visita,
Imple superna gratia
Quae Tu creasti pectora.

Qui diceris Paraclitus,
Altissimi 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 utriusque Spiritum
Credamus omni tempore.

Deo Patri sit gloria
Et Filio qui a mortuis
Surrexit, ac Paraclito
In saeculorum saecula. Amen.

Come, Creator Spirit,
visit the minds of thy faithful,
fill with grace from on high
the hearts which thou hast made.

Thou who art called the Paraclete,
gift of God most high,
living fountain, fire, charity
and spiritual anointing.

Thou, sevenfold in thy gifts,
finger of the Father’s right hand,
thou, the Father’s solemn promise,
enriching tongues with speech.

Kindle a light in our senses,
pour love into our hearts,
the weakness of our body
strengthening with lasting power.

Drive the enemy far from us
and grant us peace without delay;
so, with thee as our guide before us,
may we shun all that is harmful.

Grant that through thee we may know the Father
and come to know the Son as well,
and thee, the Spirit of them both,
may we believe at all times.

To God the Father be glory
and to the Son, who from the dead
is risen, and to the Paraclete,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Latin: Preces et pia opera, Rome 1952, no. 283. English: our translation from the Latin. Old German version: Laudate, Andachtsbuch für das Bistum Augsburg, 16th edition, Augsburg 1872, pp. 321 f.

The old German version in the Augsburg prayer book is a hymn of six strophes and leaves out the Latin closing strophe, the praise of the Trinity; anyone praying from it therefore closes with the Latin strophe Deo Patri sit gloria. Our English rendering gives all seven strophes. After the hymn follow the versicle Emitte Spiritum tuum and the collect Deus, qui corda fidelium, the same as with the short prayer “Come, Holy Spirit” (Preces 1952, no. 283).

What is the Pentecost Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus?

The Pentecost Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus is a rhymed prayer of ten short strophes that stands before the Gospel at Mass. The 1962 Missal has it prayed on Pentecost Sunday and every day until the following Saturday. Medieval writers called it the Golden Sequence.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, et emitte caelitus lucis tuae radium.
Veni, pater pauperum, veni, dator munerum, veni, lumen cordium.
Consolator optime, dulcis hospes animae, dulce refrigerium.
In labore requies, in aestu temperies, in fletu solacium.
O lux beatissima, reple cordis intima tuorum fidelium.
Sine tuo numine, nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium.
Lava quod est sordidum, riga quod est aridum, sana quod est saucium.
Flecte quod est rigidum, fove quod est frigidum, rege quod est devium.
Da tuis fidelibus, in te confidentibus, sacrum septenarium.
Da virtutis meritum, da salutis exitum, da perenne gaudium. Amen. Alleluia.

Come, Holy Spirit, and send forth from heaven the ray of thy light. Come, father of the poor; come, giver of gifts; come, light of hearts.

Thou best of comforters, sweet guest of the soul, sweet refreshment; in labour rest, in heat coolness, in weeping solace.

O most blessed light, fill the inmost hearts of thy faithful. Without thy divine power there is nothing in man, nothing that is free from harm.

Wash what is soiled, water what is dry, heal what is wounded; bend what is rigid, warm what is cold, guide what has gone astray.

Give to thy faithful, who trust in thee, the sacred sevenfold gift; give the reward of virtue, give a death in salvation, give everlasting joy. Amen. Alleluia.

Latin: Missale Romanum 1962, Dominica Pentecostes, Sequentia. English: our translation from the Latin. Old German version: Das katholische Kirchenjahr, vol. 3, Regensburg 1860, pp. 43 f.

Like the old German version, our English rendering joins two Latin strophes into one. The ninth strophe asks for the sacrum septenarium, the “sacred sevenfold number” of the gifts. These are the seven gifts that Isaias attributes to the Messiah: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (Is 11:2 f.).

Where do the Veni Creator and the Pentecost Sequence come from?

The hymn Veni Creator is attested from the 9th century and is attributed on good grounds to Rabanus Maurus, Abbot of Fulda. The Pentecost Sequence was written in the late 12th or early 13th century; its author is held to be Pope Innocent III or Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912, following the hymnologist Frere, cites the Veni Creator as “the most famous of hymns”. The breviary prays it at Vespers and Terce at Pentecost and throughout the octave. The Church also sings it at papal elections, the consecration of bishops, ordinations of priests, the dedication of churches and at synods. The present breviary version is a revision made under Pope Urban VIII. A decree of the Congregation of Rites, dated 20 June 1899 according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, laid down that the Easter closing strophe Deo Patri sit gloria, et Filio qui a mortuis surrexit is always to be used.

For the Sequence, the St Gall monk Ekkehard reports around 1220 that Pope Innocent III wrote it. A writer around 1210, probably an English Cistercian according to Cardinal Pitra, names Stephen Langton. The revised Missal of 1570 assigned it definitively to Pentecost Sunday and its octave.

“Quanam vero ratione sit exorandus, perapte docet Ecclesia, quae supplex eum compellat et obtestatur suavissimis quibusque nominibus.” Our translation: How he is to be invoked, the Church teaches most fittingly, who as a suppliant calls upon him and entreats him by all the sweetest names.

Leo XIII, encyclical Divinum illud munus, 9 May 1897; the Pope then quotes the Pentecost Sequence

When do you pray to the Holy Spirit?

You pray to the Holy Spirit above all before Pentecost, before Confirmation, before the sermon, before study and before important decisions. In 1897 Leo XIII ordered a novena before Pentecost for every year, that is, nine days of prayer in all parish churches.

A Regensburg prayer book of 1875 places the “Come, Holy Spirit” as a prayer “before the sermon”. For deliberations, the indulgence collection of 1952 has the prayer Adsumus, Domine Sancte Spiritus, a prayer, in our translation, “before a meeting at which common affairs are to be deliberated” (no. 682). If you wish to ask for the seven gifts, you can pray the Glory Be seven times; for this too the collection grants an indulgence (no. 285).

The Pentecost novena goes back to the encyclical Divinum illud munus of 9 May 1897. Leo XIII ordered that it should take place before Pentecost “in this and every following year” in all parish churches of the Catholic Church. The indulgence collection of 1952 calls it a nine days’ prayer “immediately before the feast of Pentecost” (no. 284). For confirmation candidates it is a good preparation: the Chaplet of the Holy Spirit (Corona Spiritus Sancti) in the same collection recalls the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit which, in our translation, is “given in Confirmation” to the Christian (no. 286).

Does a prayer to the Holy Spirit help before exams and decisions?

A prayer to the Holy Spirit is no guarantee of passing an exam, but it is a petition for what a person needs for every decision. The Church’s collect asks that we may be “truly wise” in the same Spirit. God answers this petition according to his will.

In Divinum illud munus Leo XIII writes that we should call upon the Holy Spirit, for no one can do without his protection and help; whoever is perplexed, weak, weighed down by sorrow or inclined to sin should flee to him. That such prayer is not in vain the Pope grounds on the Epistle to the Romans: Ipse Spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus, “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings” (Rom 8:26, our translation).

The Holy Spirit does not replace study. He gives light and calm so that a person makes right use of what he has learnt. Our Lord promised him as a teacher: Paraclitus autem Spiritus Sanctus … ille vos docebit omnia, “But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, … he will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26).

What indulgences are attached to the prayers to the Holy Spirit?

According to the collection Preces et pia opera of 1952, an indulgence of five years is attached to each of the three great prayers to the Holy Spirit. Whoever prays one of them daily for a month can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

According to the preliminary notes of the collection, the usual conditions are sacramental confession, Holy Communion, a visit to a church or public oratory and a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father. To gain an indulgence, the 1917 Code of Canon Law requires that one be baptised and not excommunicated, be in the state of grace at least at the end of the prescribed work, have at least the general intention of gaining it, and perform the work at the right time and in the right manner (CIC 1917, can. 925).

If a particular prayer is prescribed, the indulgence holds in any language only if the translation is confirmed by Church authority as faithful; any addition or omission causes it to be lost (can. 934 § 2). The old German hymn versions mentioned in this guide are free renderings, and our English translations are not officially approved either. If you wish to gain the indulgence, pray the texts in Latin.

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Frequently asked questions about prayer to the Holy Spirit