VENI SANCTE  SPIRITUS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflection for  today  is, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.”

This will be an information type sermon.

Relax – I am aiming for 6 minutes – whereas I usually aim for 10 minutes with a Sunday homily.  This will be a bit much – appealing to the mind – more than the heart – and our minds can only take so much. If this is a bomb, it will only be a 6  minute bomb. Relax. I spent  my preparation time doing some research on this Latin hymn, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.”

SEQUENCES

Veni Sancte Spiritus  is the Latin name for  this  hymn – called a sequence - for Pentecost  found here in the missalette on page 173.

It’s in Latin and English.

It’s the sequence for today’s Feast of Pentecost.

It’s one of the 5 sequences  we find in the liturgy – established with the Roman Missal of 1570 – a new Missal that  was called for by the Council of Trent [1545 to 1563]. 

The 5 sequences are:

1.    “Victimae Paschali Laudes ”  It’s for Easter -  (To the Paschal Victim give praise)

2.    “Veni Sancte Spiritus” - Come Holy Spirit – the one for today.

3.    “Lauda Sion”  - (Praise O Sion) – the one for Corpus Christi.

4.    “Stabat Mater” - (Stood the Mother sad and weeping)  for the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows – September 15.

5.    “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) – for All Souls Day – November 2^nd.

It’s my experience that these sequences  are rarely used here at St. Mary’s – with the exception of the Stabat Mater – which Harry Thomson plays every Friday night during Lent  at the Stations of the Cross – and Lauda Sion – which we sing at the 12:30 Corpus Christi Mass and Procession – which is coming up in a two weeks – June 22^nd.   You can find that sequence in the Missalette on pages 178-179.

Sequence means “following” – as in the fancy avant-garde word "segue"  [seg way] – a word I’m sure you’ve  heard various people use in the past few years – meaning “what follows without pause” – and the sequence was a hymn that followed the reading before the gospel.

Before Trent  there were many more of these sequences – but with the new Roman Missal following Trent,   it seems the 5 best were picked.

Down thought the centuries  various famous musicians and composers came up with beautiful  renditions of these sequences.

If you like to do Google or computer search,  you can listen to various compositions in Gregorian Chant  and other types of music the Veni Sancte Spiritus as well as the other sequences.

As you know from time to time – big time changes are made in Church prayers and practices and music .  As you know the Council of Trent was the reform council by the Catholic Church – in answer to the Protestant Reformation  of Christianity  that started with Martin Luther and John Calvin and others. 1517 is the usual date given for the start of the Protestant Reformation – when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, Germany.

Our big council – Vatican II – 1962-65 – after years and years of calls for changes  called for a reform on that same Roman Missal. Then  the new missal was called the Sacramentary. Two years ago a new translation of that came out, called once again, “The Roman Missal.”   

At present there are calls for a reform of this new Roman Missal – because of complaints of a  too literal translation from the Latin. If you hear us priests mixing up words – and getting tongue tied at times – it’s not just creeping dementia and old age.

THIS SEQUENCE: VENI  SANCTE SPIRITUS

Okay – having said all that, how to come to a helpful conclusion?.

Besides listening to some religious  music, what else?

Okay let me make once more a plug for a very practical spiritual practice. I love to say, “Rosary beads can be used for more than Hail Mary’s.”

I would assume everyone here has a rosary.

Simply during the next week – it’s called the Octave of Pentecost – take your rosary and pray on the 59 beads the simple prayer, “Come Holy Spirit” or if you love Latin, “Veni  Sancte Spiritus.”

It takes 3 minutes to say, “Come Holy Spirit” or “Veni Sancte Spiritus” – with the 59 beads of the rosary.

Close your eyes in prayer and say that prayer – 59 times - praying that the Holy Spirit come into your life.

Or you can go through the Pentecost Sequence and pick out just  one word  from the sequence and say that word for 59 times on the beads. There are some nice words in this sequence.  For example pray any one of these words 59 times on your beads: comfort, welcome, refresh, renew, strengthen, heal, wash, forgive, enrich, rest, cool, warm, melt, guide, save.

Try that for prayer – and getting lost in prayer – in God – in the Spirit.

CONCLUSION

Come Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus.