Treasures old and new - what a joy it is to be able to share this new settting of this really exquisite hymn with you. Drink deeply from its riches!
Hymanry.org tells us that the inspiring words were written by Bianco da Siena, a 14th century Italian poet, who was also a worker in wool, from the Tuscan city I love dearly: Siena. (See below for more detail).
The opening stanza calls on the Holy Spirit, who is both ‘Love divine’ and ‘The Comforter,’ for more of His presence in our lives. It then goes on to ask the Holy Spirit to consume all vestiges of pride and evil passion in us; to purify our love and to light our path. As a result of this longing for greater purity, the final stanza goes on to anticipate the greater love for God that ensues from such purification, and recognises that “our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us” (1 Corinthians 6:19) – and that none can guess the amazing grace God has in store for us as the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling in us.
Those of us who are familiar with Linda Entwistle's new version of this powerful hymn consider it to be even better than the well-known one by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Bianco was a member of an order of laymen that John Colombinus of Siena set up, following the rule of St. Augustine. This order ended up being suppressed by the authorities, quite possibly because they feared they could not control its fervour – a pattern that has been repeated only too often in the course of history when the Holy Spirit is poured out on a church or community, only for the authorities to go to great lengths to try first to rein it in, and then, all too often, to try to supress it altogether.
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Bianco's hymns were published in Lucca, another city that means a great deal to me personally. From there it came to the attention of Richard Frederick Littledale, an Irish scholar who served for a time as a vicar in the Anglian church, before being obliged to lay that ministry down as the result of a chronic illness. Richard spent the rest of his life authoring many books and pamphlets on Anglican liturgy, theology, and the Church’s engagement with society.
He also completed the work that his friend John Neale had done in translating many of the really great ancient hymns from the Latin. Praise God that the Lord used even his indisposition to set him apart for a work he might not have been able to complete had he still been caught up in the regular ministerial round! We hope this new version of the hymn blesses you greatly.