Lo, how a
Rose e'er
blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of
Jesse's lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a
floweret bright,
amid
the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind;
Mary we behold it,
the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God's love aright,
she bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
The shepherds heard the story
proclaimed by angels bright,
How Christ, the Lord of glory
was born on earth this night.
To Bethlehem they sped
and in the manger they found Him,
As angel heralds said.
This Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
the darkness everywhere;
True man, yet very God,
from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.
- Translated from the German Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, stanzas 1 and 2 by Theodore Baker in 1894 and stanzas 3 and 4 by Harriet Reynolds Krauth (1845-1925). The music (shared with A Great and Mighty Wonder) comes from Alte Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng (1599) to which harmony was added by Michael Praetorius in 1609.