Nativity Hymn 18: Blessed Are You, O Church

Refrain, sung twice: Praise be to him who sent him!

Blessed are you, O Church, for see, in you is the sound

of the great feast, the festival of the King!

Zion is deserted; her gates are parched with thirst

and forsaken by festivals.

Blessed are your gates, which are open yet not filled,

and your halls, which are enlarged yet are not enough!

See, in your midst is the sound of the nations, who cry out and have put the People to silence.

Blessed are you, O Church, for in your festivals

the Watchers rejoice amid your festivity!

For one night the Watchers gave praise

on the earth, which held back and refused praise.

Blessed are your voices, which have been sown and reaped

and stored up in barns in heaven!

Your mouth is a censer, and your voices are like perfumes, breathing out their smoke in your festivals.

Blessed are you, O Church, for all offerings

are brought to you at this feast.

The Magi, once among traitors, offered them to the Truth.

Blessed is your dwelling, for he bowed himself down and dwelt in it, the Son of the King who is worshiped with gifts!

Gold from the West and spices from the East

are offered at your festivals.

Blessed are you, O Church, for with you there is no

tyrant king who kills babies! For he killed the little ones in Bethlehem at random,

so that he might put to death the Child who gives life to all.

Blessed are your children, who are envied and worshiped

by kings; for the crowns of the East

are promised for your worship.

He who trampled your dear ones will be trampled by your beloved.

Blessed are you, O Church, for see, over you

Isaiah too rejoices in his prophecy:

“See, a virgin will conceive and bear

a Son,” whose name is a great mystery!

O meaning revealed in the Church!

Two names that were joined and became one:

“Immanuel.”

God be with you always, who joined you to his members!

Blessed are you, O Church, in Micah, who cried out,

“A Shepherd will come out of Ephrathah”;

for he came to Bethlehem to take

from there the rod of Jesse and to rule the nations.

Blessed are your lambs, which are sealed with his seal,

and your sheep, which are kept by his sword!

You, O Church,

are the lasting Bethlehem,

for in you is the Bread of Life!

Blessed are you, O Church, for see, in you rejoices

Daniel too, the man beloved,

who foretold that the glorious Messiah would be killed,

and the holy city laid waste at his killing!

Woe to the People that was rejected and has not turned back!

Blessed are the nations that were called and did not turn away!

The invited guests refused,

and others in their place enjoyed their banquet.

Blessed are you, O Church, for see, on your lute King David sings psalms in you!

In the Spirit he sings of him, “You are my Son; today I

have begotten you,” in the glories of holiness.

Blessed are your ears, which have been cleansed to hear!

On his day keep watch as his body and call on him.

Be taught by Zion,

which saddened his feast; make him glad who has made you glad.

Blessed are you, O Church, for all festivals

have taken flight from Zion and found shelter with you!

In your midst the weary prophets have found rest

from the labor and the disgrace they bore in Judah.

Blessed are the books unrolled in your temples,

and the festivals celebrated in your shrines!

Zion is forsaken,

and see, today the nations shout in your festivals.

Blessed are you, O Church, in ten blessings,

which our Lord has given as a complete mystery;

for all the numbers hang on ten, and so you are made perfect by ten blessings.

Blessed are your crowns, which are woven

with all blessings mingled in every crown!

O blessed one,

crowned with every blessing, send your blessing on me too!

Blessed are you, Ephrathah, mother of kings, for from you sprang the Lord of crowns!

Micah brought you the news that he is from everlasting, and the span of his times is beyond grasping.

Blessed are your eyes, which were the first of all to discern him!

He counted you worthy to see him when he appeared.

The Chief of blessing

and the Beginning of gladness you received first of all.

Blessed are you, Bethlehem, for the towns envy you,

and the fortified cities!

As they envy you, so the women envy Mary,

and the virgins who are daughters of princes.

Blessed is the young girl in whom he deigned to live,

and the city in which he deigned to stay!

A poor young girl

and a small city he chose for himself, to humble himself.

Blessed are you, Bethlehem, for in you was the beginning

for him, the Son who is in the Father from everlasting!

It is hard to grasp that he is before time,

he who in you made himself subject to time.

Blessed are your ears, for in you was first heard the cry

of the Lamb of God, who rejoiced in you!

Narrow though your manger was,

he spread himself out on all sides and was worshiped by every creature.

Blessed are you too, Mary, for your name

is great and exalted because of your child!

You can tell, then, how and how long

and where he dwelt in you, the great One in a small room.

Blessed is your mouth, which praised and did not inquire,

and your tongue, which glorified and did not question!

For his mother was uncertain about him

even while she carried him in the womb; who then will be able to grasp him?

O Woman, whom no man knew,

how can we look upon the Son you have borne?

For no eyes are able to stand

before the transfigurations of the glory that is on him.

For tongues of fire abide in him

who sent tongues by his ascension.

Let every tongue be warned

that our questioning is like stubble, and our scrutiny like fire.

Blessed is the priest who in the sanctuary

offers to the Father the Son of the Father,

the fruit picked from our tree, though it is wholly of the Divine Majesty!

Blessed are the hands that are made holy and offer him,

and the lips that are worn with kissing him!

The Spirit in the temple

longed for his embrace, and at his crucifixion tore the veil and went out.

The archangel greeted you

as the pledge of holiness.

Earth became new heavens to him

when the Watcher came down and sang glory on it.

The sons of the Highest surrounded your dwelling

because of the Son of the King who dwelt in you.

Your dwelling below

was made like heaven above by the host of Watchers.