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Summary
- The best-known prayer to the Holy Spirit is “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love,” which the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2671) calls the simplest and most direct prayer to the Spirit.
- Its full form adds a verse from Psalm 104:30 and a collect asking for “a right judgment in all things,” the same prayer the 1928 Book of Common Prayer uses for Pentecost.
- The Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus is ascribed with some confidence to Rabanus Maurus (died 856); the Pentecost sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus is of uncertain authorship, with Pope Innocent III judged most probable by the Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Orthodox services open with “O heavenly King, the Comforter, Spirit of Truth,” and the Communion service of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer with the Collect for Purity.
- Christians may pray to the Spirit directly: the Nicene Creed says the Spirit is “worshipped and glorified” with the Father and the Son, though most Christian prayer is addressed to the Father through the Son by the Spirit’s help.
- Churches differ on being filled with the Spirit: Catholics link it to Confirmation, while the Assemblies of God teaches a baptism in the Spirit after conversion, marked by speaking in tongues.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 51:10–12; 104:30; 143:10; Isaiah 11:2; Luke 11:13; John 14:16, 26; Acts 1:8; 2:4; Romans 8:26; 1 Corinthians 12:7; 14:14–15; Galatians 5:16, 22–23; Ephesians 2:18; 4:3; 5:18; 6:18; James 1:5; 2 Peter 1:21; Jude 20). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Morning Prayers, p. 52; Prayers before Mass, pp. 89–90; Hymns and Sequences, nos. 26–27, pp. 624–626. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Holy Communion, the Collect for Purity, p. 67, and the Nicene Creed, p. 71; Collect for Whitsunday, p. 180; The Ordering of Priests, Veni, Creator Spiritus, p. 543. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Divine Liturgy, p. 67. https://archive.org/details/cu31924029363128
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1302–1303: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3S.HTM; paragraphs 1830–1832: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P67.HTM; paragraphs 2670–2672: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P9F.HTM
- Henry, Hugh. “Veni Creator Spiritus.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15341a.htm
- Henry, Hugh. “Veni Sancte Spiritus Et Emitte Coelitus.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15342a.htm
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 21, sections 2–3. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/
- Assemblies of God (USA). Statement of Fundamental Truths, sections 7–8. https://ag.org/Beliefs/Statement-of-Fundamental-Truths
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