There is a stunning Christmas Gregorian chant, the famous Puer Natus Est, and it beautifully proclaims the stark reality of Jesus entering into the world in the moment of Incarnation and into His magnificent birth in a humble stable through the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I felt inspired this past Christmas to create a new chant form using the classic text, and you can listen to that original here:

(You can find my free full Gregorian chant album with PDF guide at the end of this article.)

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The Latin Text

Puer natus est nobis,
et filius datus est nobis:
cuius imperium super humerum eius:
et vocabitur nomen eius,
magni consilii Angelus.

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A Simple English Rendering

A child is born for us,
and a son is given to us:
authority rests upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
the Angel of great counsel.

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Where This Chant Comes From

The text of this piece, whether in my version or the original, is drawn from Isaiah. That alone gives it a certain tone—it’s not describing something as it happens, but announcing something that has been promised, reaching far back into the deep history of our faith in God’s mysterious pedagogical plan testified to us throughout the Old Testament. What we see manifest here is that the Church definitively applies the prophecies given over centuries to the Person of Christ as its final and complete fulfillment, for the sake of our eternal salvation.

In the Liturgy, in this spirit, it is sung as present rather than as a past proclamation or event.

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The Line About Authority

“cuius imperium super humerum eius”
— authority rests upon his shoulder

That line sits emphasizes the reality that despite coming to us as a tiny baby, fragile and vulnerable, he carries within Himself the entire power of God and the capacity to have rightful authority over all of creation.

This isn’t only about a small Child. It’s about rule, weight, responsibility, precisely coming in a form that is “upside down” and unexpected in a world so often controlled by the normal indications of power – certainly not what we see in the manger where weakness, meekness, simplicity, and poverty.

And the chant doesn’t explain that tension. It just includes it: He is both innocent, small, and vulnerable, as well as the King of the Universe with all authority due to Him.

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“Angel of Great Counsel”

The final title—magni consilii Angelus—can feel unusual.

It doesn’t translate cleanly into modern language. It’s closer to messenger, bearer of wisdom, and one who carries something larger.

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Puer Natus Est is a short Christmas chant that announces the birth of Christ without narrative detail, using a few concentrated lines drawn from Isaiah and leaving their full meaning to unfold without explanation.