O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
I've said some things about why I like this hymn here.
This is a fine hymn. But what about Puer Nobis? This also has Latin bits, plus division into parts by gender, plus a nice tenor part at the very end.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/NonEnglish/puer_nobis_nascitur.htm
Well, Veni, Veni Emmanuel is an Advent hymn rather than a Christmas hymn proper, which is what I was going for; but as I often put up Christmas hymns around Christmas, you're right that this is a very good one to consider.
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