Our Morning Offering – 6 January – The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord
Bethlehem! of Noblest Cities
By Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens (c 348-c 413)
Trans. Fr Edward Caswell c.Orat. (1814–1878)
Bethlehem! of noblest cities
None can once with thee compare;
Thou alone the Lord from Heaven
Didst for us Incarnate bear.
Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the Star that told His Birth;
To the lands their God announcing,
Hid beneath a form of earth.
By its lambent beauty guided,
See, the Eastern Kings appear;
See them bend, their gifts to offer,
Gifts of incense, gold and myrrh.
Offerings of mystic meaning;
Incense doth the God disclose;
Gold a Royal Child proclaimeth;
Myrrh a future Tomb foreshows.
Holy Jesus! in Thy brightness
to the gentile world displayed!
With the Father and the Spirit,
Endless praise to Thee be paid!
Amen! Amen!
AnaStpaul 