Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come, Holy Spirit!
Pentecost is the feast that celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church just as Jesus promised. It is commonly referred to as the birthday of the Church. The Acts of the Apostles describes how the disciples and Mary were gathered in prayer when the room was filled with the sound of a strong wind and tongues of fire rested over their heads. The disciples spoke in tongues so that people from different areas could understand them. Peter gave a sermon that led to about three thousand people being baptized that day. All these events occurred on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which was a harvest feast fifty days after Passover. We celebrate Pentecost fifty days after Easter. See Acts of the Apostles 2:1-41 for the story of Pentecost. From The Essential Guide to Catholic Terms by Mary Kathleen Clavich, SND
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
There are very few prayers to God as the Holy Spirit. This prayer was developed from the Pentecost liturgy. The first two lines are the verses sung with the Alleluia before the Gospel on Pentecost. The third and fourth lines are a quote from the Latin translation of Psalm 104, verse 30. It was part of a chant written for Pentecost.
The rest of the prayer, which follows “Let us pray” (when it is prayed publicly), is adapted from the former opening prayer of the feast. The feast of Pentecost now has a new opening prayer. The former prayer is the opening prayer for a Mass of the Holy Spirit such as might be celebrated at the opening of a school year.
This prayer is a good example of how a popular prayer to the Holy Spirit came to be composed by the faithful, using verses they heard sung and prayed at the Pentecost liturgy. From Loyola Press
Gifts of the Holy Spirit