"Come Down, O Love Divine"

Listen to the best hymn ever written*, sung by the King's College Choir.

Text via Bianco da Siena (14th C.) and translated by Anglo-Irish clergyman, Richard Frederick Littledale ; music by R.V. Williams (20th C.). And another example of the fantastic music that Pentecost has inspired.  (See more about this beautiful hymn, and the complete Bianco da Siena poem, at Discendi, amor santo.)

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.
O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far out pass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

* Well, one of, anyway.