Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus.
Luke 1:31
Words: Attributed to Venantius Fortunatus (530–609) (Quem terra, pontus, aethera). Translated from Latin to English by John M. Neale in The Hymnal Noted, 1854.
Music: St. Ambrose (Feillée) in Méthode du plain-chant, by François de la Feillée, 1782 (🔊 pdf nwc).
The God whom earth, and sea, and sky,
Adore, and laud, and magnify,
Who o’er their threefold fabric reigns,
The virgin’s spotless womb contains.
The God whose will by moon and sun
And all things in due course is done,
Is borne upon a maiden’s breast,
By fullest heavenly grace possessed.
How blest the mother, in whose shrine
The great Artificer divine,
Whose hand contains the earth and sky,
Vouchsafed, as in His ark, to lie!
Blest, in the message Gabriel brought;
Blest, by the work the Spirit wrought:
From whom the great Desire of earth
Took human flesh and human birth.
All honor, laud, and glory be,
O Jesu, virgin-born, to Thee!
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete.