O Come, Redeemer of Mankind

O come

Re­deem­er of man­kind

ap­pear

Thee with full hearts the vir­gin born we greet;

Let ev­ery age with rapt amaze­ment hear

That wond­rous birth which for our God is meet.

Not by the will of man

or mor­tal seed

But by the Spir­it’s breathed mys­te­ri­ous grace

The Word of God became our flesh in­deed

And grew a ten­der plant of hu­man race.

Lo! Mary’s vir­gin womb its bur­den bears;

Nor less abides her vir­gin pur­ity;

In the King’s glo­ry see our na­ture shares;

Here in His tem­ple God vouch­safes to be.

From His bright cham­ber

vir­tue’s ho­ly shrine

The roy­al Bride­groom com­eth to the day;

Of two­fold sub­stance

hu­man and di­vine

As gi­ant swift

re­joic­ing on His way.

Forth from His Fa­ther to the world He goes

Back to the Fa­ther’s face His way re­gains

Far down to souls be­neath His glo­ry shows

Again at God’s right hand vic­tor­ious reigns.

With the eter­nal Fa­ther eq­ual

Thou

Girt with our flesh dost tri­umph ev­er­more

Strengthening our fee­ble bo­dies here be­low

With end­less grace from Thine own liv­ing store.

How doth Thy low­ly man­ger ra­di­ant shine!

On the sweet breath of night new splen­dor grows;

So may our spir­its glow with faith di­vine

Where no dark cloud of sin shall in­ter­pose.

All praise and glo­ry to the Fa­ther be

All praise and glo­ry to His on­ly Son

All praise and glo­ry

Ho­ly Ghost

to Thee

Both now

and while eter­nal ag­es run.