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.