Christmas Sequence



Faithful people,*
 Sweeten all your song with gladness.
 Alleluia.

Matchless maiden
 Bringeth forth the Prince of princes:
 O! the marvel.

 

Virgin compasseth a man,
 Yea, the angel of the plan:
 Star the Dayspring.

 

Day that sunset shall not close,
 Star that light on all bestows,
 Ever cloudless.

 

As the star, light crystalline,
 Mary hath a Son divine
 In her likeness.

 

Star that shining grows not dim,
 Nor his Mother, bearing him,
 Less a maiden.

 

The great tree of Lebanon
 Hyssop's lowliness puts on
 In our valley;

 

And the Word of God Most High
 Self-imprisoned doth lie
 In our body.

 

So Isaias sang of old,
 So the Synagogue doth hold,
 But the sunrise finds her cold
 Hard and blinded.

 

Of her own she will not mark,
 Let her to the gentiles hark;
 For the Sybil's verses dark
 Tell of these things.

 

Make haste, O luckless one,
 Give ear to the saints bygone:
 Why perish utterly,
 O race undone?

 

He whom thy seers foretell
 Born is in Israel:
 Mary's little Son, O mark him well.
 Alleluia.

*(This version is found on Liturgialatina.org)

For a brief overview of the Liturgical Sequence, click here.