Rule us, protect us, hear our prayers, O Child not yet born, Ancient of Days. We have arisen to plead before the stony mountain; hear us O hills; open up the cave into which we might pour our cries to the one Micah sees in Bethlehem, and says:
Hail! Ruler of Israel.
Hail! Whose goings out are from age to age.
Hail! Who waits upon the woman to give birth.
Hail! Who awaits the return of your brethren.
Hail! Father of the sons of Israel.
Hail! Feeder of the flock.
Hail! Majesty of the Name.
Hail! Gatherer of the bruised.
Hail! Reigning from Mount Zion.
Hail! Who make small Bethlehem great.
Hail! Lord of Hosts, speaking in the silent cave.
Hail! New Child, being God from all eternity.
Who speaks through unclean Barlaam’s lips?
The Holy Spirit proclaims Jacob’s fair houses,
and the shady groves of Israel, the gardens, the river
to which shall come, following the star he saw,
Barlaam’s Magi heirs through whom we gentiles now sing:
Alleluia!
A day is coming, says Zechariah, when the Lord himself shall go forth and fight, shall stand upon the Mount of Olives before Jerusalem, and on that day shall He be proclaimed king over all the earth. That day now dawns and the little Child leads his army of shepherds and his hosts of angels to sing with us:
Hail! Who hurls the wealth of Tyre into the sea.
Hail! Encamped among the remnant of Judah.
Hail! Who calls the daughter of Zion to rejoice.
Hail! Riding triumphant upon the foal.
Hail! Who cuts off the chariot from Ephraim.
Hail! Whose colt turns back the warhorse from Jerusalem.
Hail! Your dominion is from sea to sea.
Hail! You rule from the River to the ends of the earth.
Hail! Blood of the covenant.
Hail! Freedom of captives from the waterless pit.
Hail! Whose grain makes the young men flourish.
Hail! Whose wine restores the maidens.
Hail! New Child, being God from all eternity.
Your prophets stilled their voices
after Malachi foresaw Elijah’s sending.
Now the great day, the awesome day is coming
with Elijah’s birth in John, whose baptizing
will prepare the world to cry:
Alleluia!
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