Surrexit Christus Hodie (“Jesus Christ is risen today”)
Tune: “Easter Hymn” • 77 77 A
Page 699
Page 709
Discendi, Amor Santo (“Come down, O love divine”)
Bianco da Siena; translated from Italian by Richard Frederick Littledale.
Tune: “Down Ampney” • 6 6 11 D
Page 673
Puer Natus Est Nobis (“Bright and joyful is the morn”)
Based on the Introit for the Christmas Daytime Mass, which comes from Isaias 9.6.
Second Tune: “Llanfair” • 77 77 A
Page 669
“God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”
The meaning of “God rest you merry” is “God keep you merry.” Note the archaic use of the word rest (“keep”)—indeed, this carol probably dates from the 16th century.
Tune: “God Rest You Merry” • 86 86 86 R
Page 667
Quem Vidistis Pastores? Dicite (“Angels we have heard on high”)
Translation: Most Rev’d James Chadwick, Bishop of Hexham
Tune: “Gloria” • 77 77 R
Page 662
Huron Carol of St. Jean de Brébeuf (“Upon the birth of Jesus”)
Translation: Fr. Dominic Popplewell
Tune: “Une Jeune Pucelle” • 86 86 88 R
This famous Christmas carol was possibly written around 1642AD, when Saint Brébeuf was in Quebec, recuperating from a broken collarbone, which had left him in excruciating pain for many months.