Lessons & Carols: No. 9

LO, HOW A ROSE E'ER BLOOMING

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 floweret 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,

Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;

True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,

And lightens every load.

(Traditional German carol, "Er ist ein Ros entsprungen," English translation by Theeodore Baker.)

THE ROSE

Some say love, it is a river

That drowns the tender reed.

Some say love, it is a razor

That leaves your soul to bleed.

Some say love, it is a hunger,

An endless aching need.

I say love, it is a flower,

And you, its only seed.

It's the heart afraid of breaking  

That never learns to dance.

It's the dream afraid of waking  

That never takes the chance.

It's the one who won't be taken

Who cannot seem to give.   

And the soul, afraid of dying

That never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely

And the road has been too long,

And you think that love is only

for the lucky and the strong,

Just remember in the winter

Far beneath the bitter snow

Lies the seed

That with the sun's love, in the spring

Becomes the rose.

(Amanda McBroom, popularized by Bette Midler in the 1979 film, "The Rose.")