Veni Creator

Come, Holy Spirit,
bending or not bending the grasses,
appearing or not above our heads in a tongue of flame,
at hay harvest or when they plough in the orchards,
or when snow covers crippled firs in the Sierra Nevada.

I am only a human being: I need visible signs.
I tire easily, building the stairway of abstraction.
Many a time I asked, you know it well,
that the statue in church lift its hand, only once, just once, for me.
But I understand that signs must be human,
therefore, call one person, anywhere on earth,
not me-after all I have some decency-
and allow me, when I look at that person,
to marvel at you.

By: Czeslaw Milosz

The beauty of this poem lies in its simplicity and depth. Here a person begs God to show him a sign of His power. But he knows that God is much much more powerful than he can ever witness or understand. Despite this, he humbles himself into accepting even the littlest and faintest sign that would betray God’s presence.