This is the piece I love.
This is the Taizé piece that sets my heart and soul free.
This is the Taizé chant that sings not only to what our English verse calls the Holy Spirit but what the Italian verse calls the Creator Spirit. To me, that is the God of process theology, but also the spirit of our own creativity, the creative spark, the part of us that cannot help but imagine and experiment and express our stories through the arts.
Italian:
Vieni Spirito creatore,
vieni, vieni,
Spirito creatore,
vieni, vieni!English:
Come and pray in us, Holy Spirit,
come and pray in us,
come and visit us, Holy Spirit,
Spirit, come, Spirit, come.Spanish:
Ven Espiritu, fuente de vida
Ven, ven, ven Señor,
Ven Espiritu, fuente de vida,
Ven Senor, ven Señor.
Is it any wonder that this is my favorite Taizé piece?
It’s made even more wonderful by a spoken word piece called “Fire of the Spirit” by Ken Herman that I have used more than once; he shared it many moons ago with the UU Musicians Network and I share it here. (When I have done it, the choir has hummed the final chord under the spoken word.):
Spoken:
Fire of revelation, flame of compassion:
Illumine our hearts and kindle our spirits.
Cloven tongues of wisdom:
Rain down on us and unleash our tongues with the Spirit of Truth.Sung:
Vieni Spirito Creatore…Spoken:
Light from uncreated light:
Fill our sight with amazing revelations and new visions.
Fire of the Spirit:
Sear our conscience with zeal for justice.Sung:
Vieni Spirito Creatore…Spoken:
Flame of aspiration:
Move our feet to tread the paths of reconciliation.
Come, Creator Spirit:
Comfort us with the warmth of your eternal love.Sung:
Vieni Spirito Creatore…Spoken:
Come, Creator Spirit:
Unite us with a zeal for communion with all of Creation.
Bless us—convert us—
May we become the Fire!Sung:
Vieni Spirito Creatore… repeat song until ready to end.
I love all that this song, and Ken’s words, evoke. I hum this often – more often than you would expect – because it connects me to my creative self and to the mystery of all creation. It calms and engages me. It reassures me and it awakens me. My muse and I find each other in the meditation of these words, beckoning the Spirit come.
This is the piece I love.
3 responses to “STJ#1049, Vieni Spirito Creatore”
Too bad the Spanish translation is not accurate and instead of Espiritu Santo says Señor.
Oh! That’s interesting. I wonder where the STJ translation comes from…
The English translation isn’t accurate either, sigh. The Italian just means, “Come, creator Spirit, come, come,” right? I don’t know Italian so there may be nuances I’m missing–e.g., it’s very possible that Spirit with a capital S clearly implies the Holy Spirit. But “pray”? There’s nothing about that. I know translating songs so they’ll fit the meter in the new language is challenging. But in this case I like the Italian meaning the best.
We have NEVER sung this and are going to for the first time this week!