Come, Holy Spirit!
Bishop Michael Ipgrave, the Bishop of Woolwich, came to confirm nearly 20 adults at St Peter’s Church last Sunday. He preached on the Holy Spirit and has kindly sent us this prayer written by St Simeon the New Theologian:
Come, true light;
come, eternal life;
come, hidden mystery;
come, treasure without name;
come, unutterable thing;
come, unknowable person;
come, incessant joy!
Come, light unfading;
come, hope which will save all.
Come, resurrection of the dead;
come, O powerful one, who fulfillest, transformest and changest all things by thy will alone;
come, invisible one, wholly intangible and impalpable.
Come, thou who restest always immovable and who, at all times, movest thyself and comest toward us who lie in hell.
Thou standest higher than the heavens.
Thy name so greatly desired and constantly proclaimed, none is able to say what it is.
None can know how thou art, of what kind or species, for that is impossible.
Come, garland never withered;
come, thou whom my wretched soul has loved and whom it loves!
Come alone to me alone.
Come, thou who hast separated me from all and hast made me lonely in this world and who thyself art become desire in me,
who hast willed that I should desire thee, thou, absolutely inaccessible.
Come, breath and my own life, consolation of my lowly heart.
COME, HOLY SPIRIT.
