On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, open your ears and your hearts to this beautiful song as Christmas draws near...

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a flowerlet bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas 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 men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
with sweetness fills the air,
Dispelled in glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
Bring us at length we pray, to the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day!