“Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming”

From the 15th-Century German, Translated by Theodore Baker

This beloved Advent hymn needs no additional introduction. The roses on the violin represent the Christ Child and his mother Mary.

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!

Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.

It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold 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.

Presbyterian Church in America, Trinity Hymnal, No 221