Despite the decreasing relevance of the Latin language in the modern world, the sound of sung Latin still seems to embody a kind of magical reverence unmatched among other Western musical languages. In this setting of the traditional “O Magnum Mysterium,” I have juxtaposed the original Latin with an English paraphrase in the hope that contemporary listeners will be able to experience the awe of the “great mystery” hundreds of years after the prayer was first penned, and millennia after its story is said to have taken place.

***

O magnum mysterium
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum
jacentem in praesepio.
O beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt
portare Dominum Jesum Christum.
Alleluia.

– Anonymous, c. 10th century

O great mystery
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should behold the new-born Lord
lying in a manger.
O blessed Virgin, whose womb bore
our saviour Christ the Lord.
Alleluia.

– Paraphrase by the composer