O Saviour of the World Forlorn

For Christmas and Circumcision

Words: Salvator mundi domine. Compline Hymn from the Salisbury Breviary.

Translation:  Alfred, Lord Braye, 1883
Another Translation is "O Lord, saviour of the world"

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), p. 32.

O Saviour of the world forlorn, 
Who man to save this day wast born, 
Our days are sinking to their night, 
In darkness save, save us in light. 

Let thy most blessed favour be 
Around us as we bend the knee ; 
Blot out our sin ; thy heavenly ray 
Dispels the gloom and makes our day. 

No sleep shall thus weigh down the mind, 
Nor ghostly foe unguarded find ; 
Nor reason yielding to a dream 
Wake less responsive to thy beam. 

O thou that makest all things new, 
With cravings of the heart we sue, 
Our lives may, fresh from thee their source, 
Renew the pureness of their course. 

To God the Father endless praise, 
And to his only Son we raise ; 
An equal glory as is meet 
Be sung to God the Paraclete.

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