This poignant Canon is listed as the "Second Canon" in the text provided in the Festal Menaion of Bishop Kallistos Ware and Mother Mary. I am asking my parishioners to read it softly, aloud, in their approach to the Nativity Feast this week. If you are looking for a Saviour (as every man really does), you could do worse than to whisper these words, which might lead you to "worship Christ in His glory."
First Canticle
Of old the Master that works wonders saved His people,
Making the watery wave of the sea into dry land;
And now of His own will has He been born from a Maiden,
And so He establishes a path for us whereby we may mount to heaven.
We glorify Him Who in essence is equal to the Father and to mortal men.
Plainly foreshadowed by the burning bush that was not consumed,
A hallowed womb has borne the Word.
God is mingled with the form of mortal men;
And so He looses the unhappy womb of Eve from the bitter curse of old.
We men give Him glory.
A star showed plainly to the Magi
The Word that was before the sun, who has come to make transgression cease.
They saw Thee wrapped in swaddling clothes, within a poor and lowly cave,
Who sharest all our sufferings,
And in joy they gazed upon Thee, who art at once both man and Lord.