Prayer to the Holy Spirit in the tradition of St Augustine

St Augustine of Hippo († 430), Doctor of the Church, devoted to the mystery of the Holy Spirit the long treatise De Trinitate (in 15 books, written between 400 and 416), as well as numerous Sermons and Commentaries. For Augustine, the Holy Spirit is the Love who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son — «Who, then, is the Holy Spirit? In a word, the Love of both. Therefore all the other gifts which we receive from the Father and from the Son are, above all, this: the participation in the Love which unites them» (a faithful paraphrase of De Trinitate XV). The prayer that follows is composed inspired by the great pneumatological invocations of De Trinitate and of the Augustinian Sermons on Pentecost, all of the 5th century in the public domain.

O Holy Spirit, eternal Love of the Father and of the Son, come to me and make of my heart your dwelling. Take from it all that displeases you, and fill it with the love which unites the Father to the Son from before creation.

Inspire in me holy thoughts, that I may think of you and through you; kindle in me holy affections, that I may love what you love; move me to holy works, that my life may be your work; lead me to the holy end of eternal contemplation, that I may contemplate you one day where you are contemplated by the Angels and by the Saints.

You confided the thirsty soul of Augustine, Lord, and late did he love you; confide my soul also, and grant that it may love you now and for ever — that no day may pass in which I am unaware of that uncreated Love which you yourself are in the bosom of the adorable Trinity.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.