Veni Sancte Spiritus

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,

they were all in one place together….

And they were all filled with the holy Spirit. 

                                                Acts 2:1, 6(a)

On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the day the Holy Spirit came to the apostles.  As I re-read the familiar account of this event, I had an interesting personal revelation: The Holy Spirit comes to the apostles in the same place (where they are both physically and emotionally) as Jesus appeared to them on the day of the Resurrection.

While you can find John’s account on page 155 of the hymnal, here is how Luke (the writer of Acts) describes it: “But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”  Luke 24:37

So..... In forty days the apostles go from being filled with fear to filled with the Spirit - From being frightened to being ON FIRE!

This revelation led me to choose “In This Place” (#308) as today’s communion hymn. I hope you’ll find Trevor Thompson’s lyrics to be as relatable and inspiring as they are to me.

We will also be singing Richard Proulx’s setting of the traditional hymn; “Come Holy Ghost” (#344) and Julie Hoy’s “Holy Spirit, Come to Me” (You’ll find the latter printed in the bulletin). You can find my notes on these in last week’s bulletin at www.stmarysnutley.org.

Finally we will sing the Sequence for Pentecost after the second reading. This and others like it were written to accommodate lengthy processions prior to the proclamation of the gospel. While most of these are no longer used or even known; today’s sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus, is one of four that remain.

Since the words are a form of poetry, I’ve decided to have them sung in the original Latin. You can find them and their translation in the Breaking Bread Hymnal. “Veni Sancte Spiritus” (Come, Holy Spirit) will alse be the response to the Intercessory Prayers.

Blessed to be in ministry at St. Mary’s

Bruce