Monday of the first week of Advent

I'm going to try to enter something every day of this Advent season, because I need to be reminded of why I am here. Most of what I put down will be from the "Liturgical Year", by Abbot Gueranger, from the late 1920's.

Today's entry is a prose from the 11th century, and taken from the ancient Roman-French missals.

Thou our eternal salvation, the never-failing light of the world.
Light everlasting and our true redemption.
Moved with compassion to see the human race perish by its idolatry offered to its very tempter.
Thou didst descend to these depths of our misery, yet not leaving thine own high throne above.
Then, by thy own gratuitous love, assuming our human nature,
Thou didst save all on earth that was lost.
Giving joy to this world.
Come, O Christ, purify our souls and bodies.
And make them thy own pure abode.
Justify us by thy first coming.
And in thy second, deliver us;
That so, when thou judgest all things, on the day of the great light,
We may be adorned with a spotless robe, and may follow thy footsteps wheresoever they are seen. Amen.

I also would like to offer some prayers from a book that I have, "Devotions for Holy Communion". It was put together in the late 1950's, and I think that it has just some awesome prayers, which we never hear any more. It's also very hard to find, but I have two of them. Anyway, here is one from the Gothic Breviary in the 7th century.

We blush with shame, O Lord, to call thee Father, we who have forfeited the dignity of sons. Yet, because with Fatherly affection thou dost save us, even when judging our faults, so, unworthy sons as we are, we may still make our appeal to thy Fatherly care. In this moment of true sorrow, then, let our sins be forgotten. So, if not by our deserving, at least by our love, we may be entitled to call thee Father.