Ah, the second Sunday of Advent! This Advent hymn was written by an unknown German composer back in the 16th century. It’s best known in English as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,†a later translation by Theodore Baker. The hymn’s lyrics refer to prophecies about Jesus in Isaiah 11:1: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.†In 1844 Lutheran pastor Friedrich Layriz added the third stanza that reminds the worshiper of the awaited Messiah who came into the darkness of this world to show God’s love by saving us from our sins.
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 flower 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 us a Savior
When half-spent was the night.
This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And bear our every load
Fernando Ortega Music