Prayer to the Holy Spirit

“Who are You, sweet light, that fills me
And illumines the darkness of my heart?
You lead me like a mother’s hand,
And should You let go of me,
I would not know how to take another step.
You are the space
That embraces my being and buries it in Yourself.
Away from You it sinks into the abyss
Of nothingness, from which You raised it to the light.
You, nearer to me than I to myself
And more interior than my most interior
And still impalpable and intangible
And beyond any name:
Holy Spirit eternal love!

Are You not the sweet manna
That from the Son’s heart
Overflows into my heart,
The food of angels and the blessed?
He who raised Himself from death to life,
He has also awakened me to new life
From the sleep of death.
And He gives me new life from day to day,
And at some time His fullness is to stream through me,
Life of Your life indeed, You Youself:
Holy Spirit eternal life!

Are You the ray
That flashes down from the eternal Judge’s throne
And breaks into the night of the soul
That had never know itself?
Mercifully relentlessly
It penetrates hidden folds.
Alarmed at seeing itself,
The self makes space for holy fear,
The beginning of that wisdom
That comes from on high
And anchors us firmly in the heights,
Your action,
That creates us anew:
Holy Spirit ray that penetrates everything!...”
~Teresa Benedicta