“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” is an easy carol to write about, because I do not have to convince you it is beautiful. Pull up any choral recording, slide over to the penultimate phrase ...

1. Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung! Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung. It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter, When half spent was the ...

But, “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” presents a problem. While all the aforementioned facets of rose imagery fit with an interpretation of the flower as Jesus, it can be argued that the song ...