LII. O ignee spiritus (Ymnus de spiritu sancto)
The Spirit at Work in the Soul's Inner Powers
The fiery Spirit is praised for animating outward worship and the interior faculties of the mind, will, and understanding within the soul.
O fiery Spirit, praise be to you, who are at work in timbrels and harps. Human minds burn with longing for you, and the tabernacles of their souls hold their own powers together. From there the will rises and grants a taste of the soul, and its lamp is desire. Understanding calls you in the sweetest sound and prepares structures for you with reason, which labors in works of gold.
The Spirit's Sword Against Harmful Desire
The Spirit wields a discerning sword that cuts off sinful fruit, binds the will and desire under the mind, and burns away the soul's wrongful curiosity.
But you always have a sword to cut off that harmful fruit which comes through darkest murder. When a cloud covers over the will and desires, in which the soul flies and circles all around. But the mind is the bond of the will and of desire. When indeed the spirit raises itself up in this way, so that it seeks to see the pupil of evil and the jaw of wickedness, you burn it up more swiftly in fire, whenever you will.
Grace Restoring a Fallen Reason
When reason sinks into baseness through sin, the Spirit seizes, shatters, and restores it through the gift of experience.
And yet when reason, through evil deeds, bends downward toward what is base, you grip it, shatter it, and bring it back by pouring experience into it, whenever you will.
The Proud Sword Broken, the Humble Raised
Evil's sword against the Spirit is shattered back upon itself, as with the proud angel, while tax collectors and sinners who confess are lifted into a new tower of mercy.
But when evil draws its sword against you, you shatter that sword against its own heart, just as you did with the first ruined angel, where you cast down the tower of his pride into hell.✦ And there you raised up another tower in tax collectors and sinners, who confess their sins to you along with their deeds.✦
The Spirit as Healing Ointment and Guide
All creatures praise the Spirit as the precious ointment that transfigures wounds into gems, and the hymn closes with a petition to be gathered and guided onto right paths. Amen.
Therefore all creatures that live because of you praise you, because you are the most precious ointment to broken and festering wounds, where you transform them into most precious gems. Now deign to gather us all to yourself and to guide us onto right paths.✦ Amen.
Read the original Latin
O ignee spiritus, laus tibi sit, qui in timpanis et citharis operaris. Mentes hominum de te flagrant, et tabernacula animarum eorum vires ipsarum continent. Inde voluntas ascendit et gustum anime tribuit, et eius lucerna est desiderium. Intellectus te in dulcissimo sono advocat ac edificia tibi cum racionalitate parat, que in aureis operibus sudat. Tu autem semper gladium habes illud abscindere, quod noxiale pomum per nigerrimum homicidium profert. Quando nebula voluntatem et desideria tegit, in quibus anima volat et undique circuit. Sed mens est ligatura voluntatis et desiderii. Cum vero animus se ita erigit, quod requirit pupillam mali videre et maxillam nequicie, tu eum citius in igne comburis, cum volueris.
Sed et cum racionalitas se per mala opera ad prona declinat, tu eam, cum vis, stringis et confringis et reducis per infusionem experimentorum. Quando autem malum ad te gladium suum educit, tu illud in cor illius refringis, sicut in primo perdito angelo fecisti, ubi turrim superbie illius in infernum deiecisti. Et ibi aliam turrim in publicanis et peccatoribus elevasti, qui tibi peccata sua cum operibus suis confitentur. Unde omnes creature, que de te vivunt, te laudant, quia tu preciosissimum ungentum es fractis et fetidis vulneribus, ubi illa in preciosissimas gemmas convertis. Nunc dignare nos omnes ad te colligere et ad recta itinera dirigere. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.37.15 — Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
- ↩Luke.18.9-Luke.18.14 — He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: Luke.18.10 — Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Luke.18.11 — The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed these things toward himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.' Luke.18.12 — I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all that I get. Luke.18.13 — But the tax collector, standing far off, was not even willing to lift his eyes to heaven, but kept beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.' Luke.18.14 — I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
- ↩Ps.23.3 — He restores my soul; he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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