Nativity Hymn 15: The Things That Were Worshiped

Refrain, sung twice: Blessed is he above all in his birth!

Celebrate this feast, you nations, the first fruits of all feasts.

Recount the sufferings that there were, and the wounds and pains,

so that we may know what plagues the Son who was sent has healed.

Refrain: Blessed be he who was able to heal our pains!

Celebrate, you saved nations, the one who saves all by his birth.

Even my feeble tongue has become a harp through his mercy.

Let us sing the excellence of the Firstborn at his festival.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has made us fit for his feast!

How then can anyone admire a physician

until he hears and learns what pains he healed?

And when our plagues are proclaimed, then our Healer is magnified.

Refrain: Blessed be he who is exalted in our pains!

Created things were worshiped. Because the worshiper was foolish,

he used to worship all things, but the One they did not worship.

So he came down in mercy and broke the yoke that enslaved all.

Refrain: Blessed is he who loosed our pains!

The mercies of the Highest were revealed; he came down and set his creature free.

In this blessed month, in which slaves are given their release,

the Lord underwent bondage, to call the slaves to freedom.

Refrain: Blessed is he who brought freedom!

The Lord of the months chose for himself two months for his deeds.

His conception was in Nisan, and his birth in Kanun.

In Nisan he sanctified those who were conceived, and in Kanun he set free those who were born.

Refrain: Blessed be he who makes his months glad!

The sun revealed its worshipers to its Lord in silence;

it grieved the sun, a servant, to be worshiped instead of its Lord.

See, creation is glad that the Creator is worshiped.

Refrain: Blessed is the Child who is worshiped!

The months wore three crowns and crowned him in his triumphs.

Blessed is the sun for his birth; for his resurrection it was longed for,

and for his ascension it was blessed: the months have brought him crowns.

Refrain: Blessed be he who has triumphed in his months!

Unveil your face and make it glad, O creation, in our feast!

Let the church sing with her voice, and heaven and earth in silence!

Sing and praise the Child, who has brought release for all!

Refrain: Blessed be he who has canceled the bonds!

When fools did reverence to the sun, by revering it they disgraced it.

But now, when all know that it is a servant, its Lord is worshiped as it runs its course;

all servants rejoice that they are counted as servants.

Refrain: Blessed be he who ordered their natures!

We have done perverse things, we who have become servants of servants.

See, our freedom forced a servant to become lord over us:

the sun, the servant of all, we have made lord of all.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has turned us to himself!

And the moon too, which was worshiped, has been set free by his birth.

For it is strange that by her light, which gives light to the eyes,

by that very light the eyes were darkened, because they gazed on her as a god.

Refrain: Blessed be the beam that has enlightened us!

Fire commended your birth, which drew worship away from it.

The Magi used to worship it, those who have worshiped before you.

They left it and worshiped its Lord; they exchanged fire for the Fire.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has bathed us in his light!

In place of the senseless fire, which eats up its own body by itself,

the Magi adored the Fire who gave his body to be eaten.

The live coal drew near and sanctified the lips that were unclean.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has mixed his fire into us!

Delusion blinded men into worshiping created things:

fellow servants were worshiped, and the God of all was wronged.

He who is to be worshiped came down to his birth and gathered worship to himself.

Refrain: Blessed is he who is worshiped by all!

The All-knowing saw that men worship things that were made.

He put on a body that was made, so that he might take us captive by our own habit,

and by a body that was made he drew us to the Creator.

Refrain: Blessed be he who drew us by cunning!

The Evil One knew how to harm us: by lights he blinded us,

by possessions he hurt us, by gold he made us poor,

and by the carver’s carved images he gave us a heart of stone.

Refrain: Blessed is he who came and softened it!

They carved and set up stones for people to stumble on.

They did not set them on the highway for the blind to stumble on;

they called them gods, so that people might stumble on them with their eyes open.

Refrain: Blessed is he who exposed the idols they feared!

Sin had spread its wings and covered all things,

so that no one could discern the truth, either by himself or from above.

The Truth came down into the womb, came out, and rolled away error.

Refrain: Blessed is he who scattered sin by his birth!

For Mercy could not bear to see the way blocked.

When he came down to be conceived, he opened the way and made it easy;

when he came out in birth, he walked it and marked its miles.

Refrain: Blessed is the peace of your way!

He chose the prophets, and they cleared the way for the people;

he sent the apostles, and they smoothed paths for the nations.

The snares of the Evil One were put to shame when feeble men cleared them away.

Refrain: Blessed is he who made our paths level!

The carved images secretly blinded those who carved them:

they carved eyes on stone and darkened the eyes of the soul.

Praise to your birth, which opened the sight that had been blinded!

Refrain: Blessed be he who has restored sight!

Let women praise her, the pure Mary,

because, as in Eve their mother

their disgrace was great,

see, in Mary their sister

their honor has been made very great.

Refrain: Blessed is he who sprang from women!

Let the nations praise your birth, because they have gained eyes to see

how their wine has made them reel, and they have seen their own humiliation.

They come to know themselves, and they worship the one who has rescued them.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has taught repentance!

Mankind had spread

its worship everywhere;

it did not seek out the one who is to be worshiped, so that worship might be paid to him.

But he could not bear

worshipers who went astray.

Refrain: Blessed is he who came down and is worshiped!

The gold of the idols worshiped you, because you used it as alms;

on its own it was of no use for the needs of life.

It hurried to your purse, as it had hurried to the manger.

Refrain: Blessed be he whom creation has loved!

The frankincense, which had served demons, worshiped your birth.

It grieved then in its smoke; it rejoiced when it saw its Lord.

Instead of being the incense of delusion, it became an offering before God!

Refrain: Blessed is your birth, which is worshiped!

The myrrh worshiped you, for itself and for the ointments of its kind.

The hands that carried its ointment had anointed abominable carved images.

To you the perfume was sweet, from the anointing with which Mary anointed you.

Refrain: Blessed is your aroma, which is sweet to us!

The gold that had been worshiped worshiped you when the Magi offered it.

What had been worshiped in molten images gave worship to you.

With its worshipers it worshiped you; it confessed that you are the one who is to be worshiped.

Refrain: Blessed is he who claimed worship for himself!

The Evil One fled, and his hosts with him, he who used to exult in the world.

On the high places they sacrificed heifers to him; in the gardens they slaughtered bulls for him.

He swallowed up all creation; he filled his belly with prey.

Refrain: Blessed be he who came and made him spit it out!

The Lord said of him that he had fallen from heaven.

The Hateful One had lifted himself up; from his lifting up he has fallen.

The foot of Mary has trodden him down, he who bruised Eve with his heel.

Refrain: Blessed be he who laid him low by his birth!

Chaldeans went around everywhere and led people astray.

The preachers of delusion were put to shame throughout the world;

they were shamed and overcome

by the preachers of truth.

Refrain: Blessed be the Baby whom they preached!

Sin had spread out her nets for the catch.

Praise be to your birth, which captured the nets of delusion!

The soul that had been caught in the deep took flight on high.

Refrain: Blessed is he who prepared wings for us!

His will was able to rescue us even by force.

But since it was not force that made us guilty, it was not by force that he cleansed us.

The Evil One enslaved us by enticement; your birth enticed us to give us life.

Refrain: Blessed be he who made his plan and gave us life!

The creatures complained that they were worshiped; in silence they sought release.

The Releaser of all heard, and because he could not bear it, he came down,

put on the form of a servant in the womb, came out, and set creation free.

Refrain: Blessed be he who made his creation his gain!

Mercy was kindled on high at the voice of creation crying out.

Gabriel was sent; he came and brought the news of your conception.

When you came to your birth, Watchers brought the news of your coming out.

Refrain: Blessed be you in your worship above all!

For the joy of the birth is greater than that of the conception.

Yes, it was one angel who brought us the news of your conception,

but in the joy of your birth a multitude of Watchers brought the news.

Refrain: Blessed be your good news on your day!

I too will offer glory to you on your day, O you who are worshiped!

Take the fruit that is mine, and give me the mercy that is yours!

For if the evil in me gives gifts, how much more will you give, you who are good!

Refrain: Blessed is your wealth in your servant!

The two things you sought have been done for us by your birth.

You have put on our visible body; we have put on your invisible might.

Our body has become your clothing; your Spirit has become our robe.

Refrain: Blessed be he who has been adorned and has adorned us!

Height and depth were amazed that your birth subdued the rebels.

Because we gave you hostages, you gave us the Paraclete.

When the hostages went up from us, the Captain of the host came down to us.

Refrain: Blessed be he who took away and sent down!

Come, you mouths of all people, and pour out! Be like waters, and like wells of voices!

May the Holy Spirit come

and sing glory through us all to the Father, who has redeemed us through his Son!

Refrain: Blessed is he above all in his birth!