As the time approached,
the time of the Son's birth,
like the groom rises
from the wedding bed
with his beloved wife,
who he holds in his arms
and takes into his embrace,
the one whom a dearly beloved mother
places in the humble cradle
next to the ox and the donkey,
who were in the stable then;
angels played for him,
people sang him songs,
and thus celebrated the union
between the two,
but God wept in the manger,
cried, was inconsolable,
in the tears his wife brought
to this wedding like jewels,
and the mother marveled in awe,
at such a transformation,
namely, the crying of man in God
and in man the joy,
is one and the same, even though it
was not common and is not.
(St. John of the Cross, final part of the Romance on the Gospel In principio erat verbum,
Christmas 1577; translation Miloslav Uličný)
