Come, Holy Spirit of God
Sometimes the most honest prayer is the simplest one: come.
A few years ago, I made a short piece of visual liturgy with my daughter Joey — a quiet, devotional video meant to be prayed as much as watched. It’s not a “production” so much as an offering: a small window into the way a household can practice faith with what’s right in front of us—light, hands, breath, images, and a shared desire for God’s nearness.
The words that guide the piece are adapted from the poem “Come, Holy Spirit of God” (more on that below). I didn’t write the poem. But I did shape the video as a prayerful response to it — and Joey gave her voice to it with the kind of clarity only a child can offer: unguarded, sincere, and fully present.
Why a visual liturgy?
In many churches, liturgy lives primarily in spoken language: calls to worship, prayers, readings, hymns, and benedictions. But faith is never only verbal. We believe with our bodies too: in silence, in attention, in the way we see the world, in the way we stand inside it.
This video was my attempt to create a small liturgy for the eyes — something that invites viewers into a posture of receivity to the Spirit—not as an idea, but as presence.
If the Spirit is truly “breath,” then it makes sense that our prayer would be simple:
Come. Breathe. Renew. Heal. Gather.
A note about collaboration
The credits matter to me here, because this is one of those pieces where the giving and receiving are part of the devotion.
I created the video as part of my work with the Living Water Association (Ohio Northeast).
Joey read the words — and the piece is better for it. (If you’re a parent, you know what I mean: sometimes you’re not teaching; you’re witnessing.)
Watch the video
As you let it play, I pray the words do what prayers were meant to do: make room.