Come down O Love divine [choral setting]

Bianco da Siena / Richard Frederick Little

sheet music (PDF master score with permission to print or download an authorised number of copies) available via this website: GBP 1.90 per print-out

• Come down O Love divine [hymn arrangement]

Come down, O Love divine,
Seek thou this soul of mine,
And visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O Comforter, draw near,
Within my heart appear,
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light
shine ever on my sight,
and clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity
Mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart,
Which takes the humbler part,
And o'er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong,
With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace,
Till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.

 

Bianco da Siena (1350-1399) translated by Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890)

• choral - mixed voices accompanied