Nativity

LETRA

Nativity

(Lee Ann Womack)

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb
Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment
There He hath made Himself to His intent
Weak enough, now into the world to come;
But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room?
Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient
Stars and wise men will travel to prevent
The effect of Herod's jealous general doom
Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith's eyes, how He
Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie?
Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high
That would have need to be pitied by thee?
Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing
That he our deadly forfeit should release
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace

II
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty
Wherewith he won't at Heav'n's high council-table
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity
He laid aside, and here with us to be
Forsook the courts of everlasting day
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay

III
Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain
To welcome him to this his new abode
Now while the heav'n, by the Sun's team untrod
Hath took no print of the approaching light
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

IV
See how from far upon the eastern road
The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;
Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet
And join thy voice unto the angel quire
From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire