1      Lo, how a rose e’er blooming

        from tender stem hath sprung!

        Of Jesse’s lineage coming

        as seers of old have sung,

        it came, a flow’r so bright,

        amid the cold of winter,

        when half-spent was the night.

2      Isaiah had foretold it,

        the rose I have in mind;

        with Mary we behold it,

        the virgin mother kind.

        To show God’s love aright,

        she bore to us a Savior,

        when half-spent was the night.

3      This flow’r, whose fragrance tender

        with sweetness fill the air,

        dispels with glorious splendor

        the darkness everywhere.

        True man, yet very God,

        from sin and death he saves us

        and lightens ev’ry load.

4      O Savior, child of Mary,

        who felt our human woe;

        O Savior, king of glory,

        who dost our weakness know:

        bring us at length, we pray,

        to the bright courts of heaven

        and into endless day.