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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Breathe on Me, O Breath of God

The prayer with St. Madeleine Sophie and the Holy Spirit on the last morning of the Provincial Assembly began with the hymn whose text is from Edwin Hatch who lived from 1835-1889. The tune is St. Columba but I love the words and will copy them here for you.

O breathe on me, O breath of God, 
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love the things you love, 
And do what you would do.

O breathe on me, O breath of God, 
Until my heart is pure;
Until my will is one with yours,
To do and to endure.

O breathe on me, O breath of God,
My will to yours incline,
Until this selfish part of me
Glows with your fire divine.

O breathe on me, O breath of God, 
So shall I never die,
But live with you the perfect life
Of your eternity.

I think the first verse is a perfect prayer for the day and will leave you with that and this one quote from Sophie written in 1841 in a conference she gave at Amiens: "We need a means to encourage the soul, to nourish it and raise it over itself. The means of all means is the Spirit who vivifies and makes fruitful...This Spirit becomes the breath of the soul..would to God each one may exclaim, 'I begin today!'"

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