Blessed is the Child who today gladdened Bethlehem. Blessed is the Infant who today renewed humanity’s youth. Blessed is the Fruit who stooped down to our hunger. Blessed is the Good One who suddenly enriched all our poverty and filled our need. Blessed is He whose mercies bowed Him down to visit our sickness.
Refrain: Blessed, my Lord, is Your birth, which exalted our low estate.
Give thanks to the Fountain who was sent for our atonement. Give thanks to Him who loosed the Sabbath by fulfilling it. Give thanks to Him who rebuked leprosy, and it did not remain; even fever saw Him and departed. Give thanks to the Merciful One who bore our burden. Glory to Your coming, which gave life to humanity.
Glory to Him who came to us through His Firstborn. Glory to the Silent One who spoke through His Voice. Glory to the Exalted One who was seen through His Dawn. Glory to the Spiritual One who willed that His Son should become a body, so that in it His power might be touched, and in that body the bodies of His household might live.
Glory to the Hidden One whose Son became manifest. Glory to the Living One whose Son became one of the dead. Glory to the Great One whose Son descended and became small. Glory to the Power who fashioned for Himself a form for His greatness and an image for His hiddenness. With eye and mind we beheld Him—with both.
Glory to the Hidden One whom even thought cannot fully touch, however deeply people search Him; yet in His grace He was touched by a human hand. The Nature that had never been touched was bound and fettered by hands, fixed and raised up by His feet. By His own will He embodied Himself for those who seized Him.
Blessed is He whom free will crucified because He permitted it. Blessed is He whom the wood bore because He allowed it. Blessed is He whom the grave enclosed—and so the grave itself was bounded. Blessed is He whose own will brought Him to the womb and birth, to arms and growth. Blessed is He whose changes gave life to our humanity.
Blessed is He who marked our soul, adorned it, and betrothed it to Himself. Blessed is He who made our body a tabernacle for His hiddenness. Blessed is He who interpreted His mysteries through our tongue. Let us give thanks to that Voice whose glory is sung on our lyre and whose power is sung on our harp. The nations gathered and came to listen to His melodies.
Glory to the Son of the Good One, whom the sons of evil rejected. Glory to the Son of the Just One, whom the sons of wickedness crucified. Glory to Him who loosed us and was bound for us all. Glory to Him who gave the pledge and Himself paid it. Glory to the Beautiful One who fashioned us in His likeness. Glory to the Pure One who did not look upon our stains.
Glory to Him who sowed His Light in the darkness and endured reproach in His lowliness, which concealed His hidden things. He stripped off and removed from us the garment of our stains. Glory to the Exalted One who mixed His salt into our minds and His leaven into our souls. His Body became Bread to give life to our deadness.
Give thanks to the Rich One who paid on behalf of us all what He had never borrowed, who wrote the bond and then became our debtor. By His yoke He broke from us the bars of the one who held us captive. Glory to the Judge who was judged, who seated His Twelve to judge the tribes and, through the unlearned, condemned the scribes of that people.
Glory to Him who can never be measured by us. Our heart is too small for Him, and our mind is weak. By the riches of His wisdom He exposes the smallness of our understanding. Glory to the Knower of all who stooped down and asked, so that He might hear and learn what He already knew, and through His questions reveal the treasury of His saving helps.
Let us worship Him who enlightened our mind by His teaching and opened in our hearing a path for His words. Let us give thanks to Him who set His fruit within our tree. Thanks to Him who sent His Heir, that through Him He might draw us to Himself and make us heirs with Him. Thanks to the Good One, the cause of every good thing.
Blessed is He who did not rebuke simply because He was good. Blessed is He who did not neglect to rebuke, because He is also just. Blessed is He who was silent and who rebuked, giving life through both. His silence is strong and reproving; His strength is gentle even when He accuses. He rebuked the traitor and kissed the thief.
Glory to the hidden Cultivator of our thoughts. His seed fell into our soil and enriched our mind; its yield came a hundredfold into the storehouse of our souls. Let us worship Him who sat down and rested, yet walked along the road: the Way Himself was on the way, and He was the Door for those entering, through whom they entered the Kingdom.
Blessed is the Shepherd who became a Lamb for our reconciliation. Blessed is the Branch who became the Cup of our salvation. Blessed also is the Cluster, a flowing fountain of the Medicine of Life. Blessed is the Farmer who Himself became the Wheat that was sown and the Sheaf that was harvested. He is the Architect who became a Tower for our refuge.
Blessed is He who ordered the senses of our minds so that with our lyre we might sing what the mouth of a winged creature cannot sing in its melodies. Glory to Him who saw that in our anger and greed we had chosen to become like the animals, and came down to become one of us so that we might become heavenly.
Glory to Him who never needs our thanksgiving, yet chose to need it because He loves us; He thirsted because He loves us, and He asks us to give to Him so that He may give still more to us. His Fruit was mingled with our humanity, so that through Him we might be drawn toward the One who bowed down toward us. By the Fruit of the Root He grafted us into His Tree.
Let us give thanks to Him who endured and gave us life by His wounds. Let us give thanks to Him who took away the curse through His thorns. Let us give thanks to Him who killed death by His death. Let us give thanks to Him who was silent and justified us. Let us give thanks to Him who cried out against the death that had swallowed us. Blessed is He whose saving helps cleared away the left side.
Let us praise Him who kept watch and put our captor to sleep. Let us praise Him who slept and drove away our deep sleep. Glory to God, the Physician of humanity. Glory to Him who was baptized and sank our guilt in the depths, and choked the one who had choked us. With every mouth let us praise the Lord of every saving means.
Blessed is the Physician who came down and cut without causing pain, and healed wounds with a medicine that was not harsh. His Son became a Medicine that showed mercy to sinners. Blessed is He who dwelt in the womb and there built a temple in which He would dwell, a sanctuary in which He would be, a garment in which He would be clothed, and a weapon by which He would conquer.
Blessed is He whom our mouth is unable adequately to thank, for His Gift is greater than the power of speakers, and our faculties are unable to give thanks for His goodness. However much we thank Him, it is little. Yet since it is no help to remain silent and restrain ourselves, may the grace of our thanksgiving make good the weakness of our praise.
O Good One, who does not demand more than our strength can give: how severely would Your servant be judged for principal and interest if he failed to give what he was able and withheld what he owed! O Ocean of praise, who have no need of it, receive in Your goodness this drop of thanksgiving, for by Your gift my tongue has come to long for Your praise.