Tuesday-2nd seek of Advent 2011

Today is December 6th, the feast day of St. Nicholas(NOT Santa Claus). I'd like to dedicate this day's prayers for him. He was one of 318 bishops who contested Arius during that heresy in the 4th century.

The follow sequence is from the middle ages, and composed by Adam of Saint-Victor singing the praises of St. Nicholas:

With our hearts and songs in unison, let us exult on this festive solemnity of blessed Nicholas.
When a babe in his cradle, he began to fast.
And thus deserved, before weaned from the breast, the joys of heaven.
He enters, when a boy, upon a course of studies,
Yet follows not, yet knows not, impurity.
Blessed confessor indeed, whose worth was known by a message from heaven,
At whose bidding he was promoted and exalted to the supreme dignity of pontiff.
There was in his soul the most tender compassion, which prompted him to bestow continual benefits on those who suffered oppression.
He averted infamy from virgins by the gold he gave; and by the same he relieved their father's poverty.
Some mariners had set sail; when a furious storm attacked them, and their bark was well-nigh wrecked:
Despairing of life, and in this extreme danger, they cry out with one voice, saying:
'O holy Nicholas! help us out of these straits of death, and lead us into harbour!
'Yea, lead us into harbour, thou whose kind heart is ever ready to help them that are in affliction.'
They prayed; not was it in vain: for lo! a voice was heard saying: 'I am here to help you.'
Straightway arose a favourable wind: the storm was lulled: the sea was calm.
From his tomb there flows an abundant oil:
It heals all kinds of sickness, through the intercession of the saint.
We who are now living in this world, have already suffered shipwreck in the sea of sin:
Ah! glorious Nicholas, lead us into the harbour of salvation, where there is peace and glory.
There is an unction, which thy merciful prayers must get us from the Lord:
It is that unction which healed the wound of Magdalene's many sins.
May they that keep this feast come to the eternal joys;
And may Jesus crown them after this life is run,
Amen.

And now, a prayer from the Gallican Sacramentary for today:

O merciful and most loving God, by whose will and bounty our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself that he might exalt the whole human race, and came down to what was lowest that he might raise up the humble: who, being God, did become man, born of a Virgin, to the end that he might re-form in man the heavenly image that had been corrupted; grant that this thy people may cling to thee, and that they, whom thou hast redeemed by the bounty, may ever please thee by devoted service.