COME HOLY GHOST

 A HYMN FOR WHITSUNTIDE

By Rabanus Maurus (776-856)

 

 

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;

Come with thy grace and heavenly aid,

And fill the hearts which thou hast made.

 

To thee, the Paraclete, we cry,

To thee, the Gift of God most high,

The Fount of life, the Fire of love,

The soul's Anointing from above.

 

The sevenfold gifts of grace are thine,

O Finger of the Hand Divine;

True Promise of the Father thou,

Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

 

Thy light to every sense impart,

And shed thy love in every heart;

Thine own unfailing might supply

To strengthen our infirmity.

 

Drive far away our ghostly foe,

And thine abiding peace bestow;

If thou be our preventing Guide,

No evil can our steps betide.

 

Make thou to us the Father known,

Teach us the eternal Son to own,

Be this our neverchanging creed,

That thou dost from them both proceed.

 

All praise be thine, O risen Lord,

From death to endless life restored;

Whom with the Father we adore,

And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.