As an Easter gift, my wife bought Fr. Cantalamessa's "Come, Creator Spirit" for me.
It's the mother lode of meditations on Veni Creator Spiritus
Here's a tidbit from page 2:
"... the Veni Creator has enjoyed extraordinary success even out Church circles. Goethe produced a splendid German translation of it, as did the poets and mystics Tersteegen and Angelus Silesius. Composers showed their interest in it. Bach set Luther's translation to music; Gustav Mahler chose the hymn as libretto for his choral work Symphony of a Thousand, to say nothing of the many other authors of lesser note. Yet none of them so far has managed to equal the simple fascination of the Gregorian melody that seems to have come to birth in the same creative act as produced the words. To listen to this melody at the beginning of a retreat or at a priestly ordination is, as it were, to enter without further ado into an atmosphere charged with mystery and with the presence of the Spirit.
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