CAPITULA
Lo! the first beginnings of Christian joy, O Lord, whereby erstwhile the sanctified Voice preceded the Word about to be born of the flesh, and the herald of light signally announced the rising of the Day star he himself had witnessed: by him both Faith's mysteries and salvation's fountains have produced marvels: he is approved whose conception is miracle, whose birth is joy; therefore do we beseech thee, that we who with glad ovations hail the birthday of thy Precursor, may with purified hearts draw nigh likewise unto thine own Nativity: so that the Voice which preached thee in the desert may cleanse us in the world; and he who, preparing the way for the coming Lord, washed in his baptism the bodies of living men, may now by his prayers purify our hearts from vices and errors: so that, following in the footprints of the Voice, we may deserve to come to the promise of the Word.
The next prayers we have are from the Sacramentary of St. Gelasius:
May the prayer of blessed John Baptist, O Lord, plead for us, that we may both understand and merit the mystery of thy Christ.
O Almighty and eternal God, Who, in the days of blessed John Baptist, didst fulfill the institutions of the Law and the declarations of the holy Prophets, grant, we beseech Thee, that figures and signs being ended, Truth Himself, by His own manifestation, may speak: Jesus Christ our Lord.
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