ORATIO VII. AD DEUM. Cum confessione peccatorum, et humili petitione gratiae.
The Depth of Our Sinfulness
The soul confesses the full weight of its sins, acknowledging that suffering is less than deserved, and honestly exposes the stubbornness, fickleness, and inner resistance that keep it from true amendment.
Most holy God, God merciful and compassionate, be gracious to our sins, and grant that the sins we have committed—whether instigated by the author of death or by our own will—you would not reserve for your judgment to be examined, but having been given grace, we might rejoice in pardon alone. Because if we were to set before your eyes, Lord, the faults we have done and the blows we receive, what we suffer is less, and what we deserve is greater.✦12 We feel the punishment of sin, and we do not avoid the stubbornness of sin. Under your scourges our frailty is broken, and our iniquity is not changed. The sick mind is tormented, the hard neck is not bent; life sighs in grief, and in deed it does not amend. If you wait, we are not corrected; if you punish, we do not endure. Under correction we confess what we have done; under visitation we forget what we wept for. If you lay on your hand, we promise what should be done; if you hold back the sword, we do not carry out our promises.3 If you strike, we cry out so that you might spare us; if you spare us, we provoke again so that you might strike.4
The Abuse of God's Patience
The penitent laments how quickly mercy is forgotten, how divine patience is exploited, and how promises made under pressure are broken once relief comes, yet still appeals to God's great compassion.
When distress comes, we ask for time to repent; when mercy turns its eyes on us, we abuse the patience that has spared us. The blow that's been struck has barely passed, and already an ungrateful mind forgets what it endured. If you answer us too quickly, we grow arrogant from your mercy; if too slowly, we grumble out of impatience.5 We want to keep what you promised, yet we're not afraid to disregard what you commanded. So then, Lord, you have guilty people confessing to you — spare us, because you are merciful. We know that unless you forgive us, you would rightly punish us, but with you there is great compassion and overflowing mercy.6 Grant us without merit what you asked us to receive, you who made from nothing those who would ask.
A Plea for Mercy and Restoration
The prayer culminates in a heartfelt cry for mercy, placing guilt and sorrow before God, asking for tears over sin, freedom from evil, and the joy of salvation shared in love and peace with all peoples.
Have mercy, Lord, on us who cry out to you — let the voice of the faithful and the weeping move your compassion. And may that mercy, on which we place all our hope, not weigh against us the offenses we have committed, since it looks instead upon the fact that we are asking. And though the misery of being guilty is great, greater still is your mercy in making us merciful. As suppliants we place before you, by your help, both the wrongs of our guilt and our sorrows, and from you in prayer we await the mercy that we drove away by sinning. Grant then, most loving Father, that we may weep over what we have done wrong, and that through the hours of the whole day or night you may allow us, freed from every assault of evil, to serve your loving kindness. Let it be granted us, through your forgiveness, to receive what you are asked to give — for you recognize that we have no confidence from our own righteousness. Raise us up, Lord our God, and lift us up in your mercy, that in the fellowship of salvation and the joy of love — since it is by your gift that we desire to be saved — we may also rejoice in the faith and peace of all nations.
Read the original Latin
Deus piissime, Deus clemens et misericors, propitiare peccatis nostris, et praesta ut peccata quae vel auctore mortis instigati vel propria voluntate commisimus, non ad judicium tuum discutienda reserves, sed concessa gratia de sola tantum venia gratulemur, quia si ante oculos tuos, Domine, culpas quas fecimus et plagas quas excipimus conferamus, minus est quod patimur, majus est quod meremur. Peccati poenam sentimus, et peccati pertinanaciam non vitamus. In flagellis tuis fragilitas nostra frangitur, et iniquitas nostra non mutatur. Mens aegra torquetur, cervix dura non flectitur, vita in dolore suspirat, et in opere non emendat. Si exspectas, non corrigimur; si vindicas, non duramus. Confitemur in correptione quod fecimus, obliviscimur in visitatione quod flevimus. Si impresseris manum, facienda promittimus; si suspenderis gladium, promissa non facimus. Si ferias, clamamus ut parcas; si parcis, iterum provocamus ut ferias.
Si angustia veniat, tempus petimus poenitendi; si misericordia nos respexit, abutimur patientia quae pepercit. Adhuc illata plaga vix praeterit, et jam non recolit mens ingrata quod pertulit. Si citius nos exaudias, ex misericordia insolescimus; si tardius, ex impatientia murmuramus. Te volumus servare quod promiseris, et nos non timemus non observare quod jusseris. Habes ergo, Domine, confitentes reos; parce quia pius es. Novimus quia, nisi remittas, recte nos punias, sed apud te est multa miseratio et propitiatio perabundans. Praesta ergo sine merito quod rogamus, qui fecisti ex nihilo qui rogarent.
Clamantium ad te, Domine, nostri miserere, moveat pietatem tuam vox fidelis atque flebilis, atque illa de qua totum speramus misericordia non reputet quod offendimus, dum respicit quod rogamus. Et cum grandis sit miseria esse nos reos, major sit tibi clementia esse nos miseros. Tuo supplices auxilio ante te et criminis nostri mala ponimus et dolores, et a te precando misericordiam quam peccando repulimus exspectamus. Da igitur, Pater piissime, ut ea quae commisimus defleamus, ac per totius diei vel noctis spatia ab omnibus malorum incursibus liberos tuae pietati servire concedas. Praestetur nobis de indulgentia tua quod rogaris accipere, quos agnoscis de nostra justitia fiduciam non habere. Erige nos, Domine Deus noster, et alleva in misericordia tua, ut communione salutis et gaudio charitatis, dum ipsi salvari ex munere cupimus, etiam fide et pace cunctarum gentium gaudeamus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Heb.2.14 — Since, therefore, the children have shared in blood and flesh, he himself also in like manner partook of the same, so that through death he might destroy the one having the power of death, that is, the devil,
Notes
- 1 ↩The phrase 'auctore mortis' (author of death) is a traditional reference to the devil; the translation preserves the allusive force without expanding it.
- 2 ↩'Gratulemur' rendered as 'we might rejoice' captures the optative/jussive subjunctive; the sense is that pardon itself, not the punishment, should be the occasion of joy.
- 3 ↩'Impresseris manum' (lay on your hand) is an idiom for applying pressure or punishment; 'suspenderis gladium' (hold back the sword) refers to staying judgment. The translation preserves the concrete imagery.
- 4 ↩Both 'ut' clauses are purpose clauses: we cry out *in order that* you might spare; we provoke *in order that* you might strike. The paradox captures the self-defeating cycle of the penitent who resists grace.
- 5 ↩Ex audire carries the sense of hearing favorably / answering, not merely hearing; rendered 'answer' to keep the petitionary force.
- 6 ↩the clause 'recte nos punias' is read as a subjunctive of consequence ('you would rightly punish us') following nisi remittas; the Latin is grammatically compressed.
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