Christ, who was once promised to the Fathers,

Descended from on high; having put on the weak shape of flesh,
He illuminated mortals with the rising of his saving light,
Whom the sad yoke of the ruling Avernus the underworld
And the penal chaos pressed with cruel dominion.

The holy pastor from Horeb saw under the image of the burning woods
The royal Germ of David,
To be born one day to the world, as the years rolled on,

And to scatter new light from the mount of Sion Zion.
As green shoots rise from a pruned root,
And unfold a leafy mane: Thus the golden Offspring
Of the Jessean stock raises itself into the wide airs.
Truly, GOD reigns from the Wood a traditional reference to the Cross: Thence he exerts
The rods of supreme Empire and the benign scepter.
Now one Pastor has gathered the peoples of the Eastern
World and the Western, and to the nourishing mount of Sion
Has brought those burning deeply with a wholesome fire,
Whom the breathable Divine feeds with gentle warmth.

The Bronze Serpent,

Num. 21.

The healing power of the Divine

The Bronze Serpent suspended on an erect stake

Lift up your eyes, I pray, O most wretched crowd, lift them up,