Sunday, December 24, 2006

O Holy Night!

Oh holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
Oh night, Oh night divine, Oh night Divine.

(Adolphe Adam, 1847)


A blessed Christmastide to all.

2 comments:

Erin said...

This is probably my favorite traditional Christmas carol - though that's a hard distinction because I love so many! It's interesting that we rarely hear the other verses; considering the fact that this was written 15 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, that third verse is pretty powerful... Incidentally, my mom and another lady sang this together at the Christmas Eve service today. Sounded really nice! Well, a very merry Christmas!!!

Beth said...

Hey Erin, Merry Christmas to you too, albeit a bit belatedly! I think you and I are travelling at different times during this holiday week or so, and will be catching up on each others' notes at odd times. :-) Still, I hope you and your family had (and are having) a lovely celebration.

I love this carol too. I always have, but for some reason this season it's really speaking to me. I thought of posting verse 3 actually :-) but had limited computer time while on the road, so just went with the first one. You're right though, it's a powerful song. Glad to hear your mom sang it as a duet at church -- I'm sure it was beautiful!