Templi sacratas pande Sion fores

O Sion! open wide thy gates;
Let figures disappear;
A Priest and Victim both in one,
The Truth Himself is here.

No more the simple flock shall bleed.—
Behold the Father’s Son!
Himself to His own Altar comes
For sinners to atone.

Conscious of hidden Deity,
The lowly Virgin brings
Her new-born Babe, with two young doves,
Her tender offerings.

The hoary Simeon sees at last
His Lord so long desired,
And hails, with Anna, Israel’s hope,
With sudden rapture fired.

But silent knelt the Mother blest
Of the yet silent Word;
And pondering all things in her heart,
With speechless praise ador’d.

Praise to the Father and the Son;
Praise to the Spirit be;
Praise to the blessed Three in One,
Through all eternity.