From east to west
from shore to shore
Let every heart awake and sing
The holy Child whom Mary bore
The Christ
the everlasting King.
Behold
the world’s Creator wears
The form and fashion of a slave;
Our very flesh our Maker shares
His fallen creature
man
to save.
For this how wondrously He wrought!
A maiden
in her lowly place
Became
in ways beyond all thought
The chosen vessel of His grace.
She bowed her to the angel’s word
Declaring what the Father willed
And suddenly the promised Lord
That pure and hallowed temple filled.
He shrank not from the oxen’s stall
He lay within the manger bed
And He whose bounty feedeth all
At Mary’s breast Himself was fed.
And while the angels in the sky
Sang praise above the silent field
To shepherds poor the Lord Most High
The one great Shepherd
was revealed.
All glory for this blessèd morn
To God the Father ever be;
All praise to Thee
O virgin born
All praise
O Holy Ghost
to Thee.