ORATIO VIII. AD DEUM.
A Cry for Mercy and Pure Confession
The suppliant beseeches God's immeasurable mercy to grant a pure confession and true repentance for sins committed through every faculty of body and soul.
God, immeasurable in mercy, God of boundless devotion, God who founded and restored the human race — you who cleanse the hearts of those who confess to you, and who absolve those who accuse themselves before the sight of your divine clemency from every bond of iniquity — I beg you with all my strength and every groan: according to the vastness of your compassions, grant that I may make a pure confession before you of all my iniquities, the very ones my conscience accuses me of, and grant me a true and worthy repentance for all of them — for whatever I have sinned in wicked thoughts, in evil consent, in unjust counsel, in unclean desire and delight, in idle words, in malicious deeds, in sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.✦✦
The Wretchedness of Misused Gifts
The penitent laments having despised God's merciful design for the body, consenting to the enemy's destruction, and acknowledges innumerable offenses beyond counting.
For you, in your mercy, gave me each of my limbs suited to the uses of human life for the salvation of my soul — but I, the most wretched of all, a sinner, despised you, the lover of eternal salvation, and consented to the eternal fires the enemy was preparing for me. I have fallen into sins, collapsed into offenses; in each of my individual members I have overstepped all bounds, and made myself a slave to impious labors. For in saying this, Lord, I am not blaspheming your creation against myself — but I demand my healing from you, most devout God, because I know myself guilty beyond measure, because as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea are beyond counting, so I recognize my offenses to be innumerable.✦✦
The Principal Vices and the Plea for God's Relenting Gaze
The penitent names the capital vices — anger, sadness, sloth, boasting, idleness — and confesses enslavement to them, then appeals to God who does not will the death of the sinner to look down in mercy.
On top of all this: anger, sadness, sloth, boasting, and idleness. And so I confess that I am a slave to these principal vices — but you, who do not will the death of the sinner, look upon me and have mercy on this wretched one.✦
Read the original Latin
Deus inaestimabilis misericordiae, Deus immensae pietatis, Deus conditor et reparator humani generis, qui confitentium tibi corda purgas, et accusantes ante conspectum divinae clementiae tuae ab omni iniquitatis vinculo absolvis, virtutem tuam totis exoro gemitibus, ut secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum de omnibus iniquitatibus meis, de quibus me accusat conscientia mea, puram mihi coram te concedas agere confessionem, veramque ex his omnibus et condignam mihi tribuas poenitentiam, quaecunque peccavi in cogitationibus pravis, in consensu malo, in consilio iniquo, in concupiscentia atque delectatione immunda, in verbis otiosis, in factis malitiosis, in visu, auditu, gustu, odoratu et tactu. Tu enim misericors ad operandum mihi animae meae salutem membra singula humanis usibus apta dedisti, sed ego miserrimus omnium et peccator te aeternae salutis amatorem contempsi, et aeterna mihi incendia inimico praeparanti consensi, lapsus sum in peccatis, corrui in delictis, in membris singulis vero modum excessi, et impiis me laboribus obnoxium feci; non enim haec narrans tuam, Domine, in me blasphemo creaturam, sed meam a te, piissime Deus, exposco medicinam, quia me reum intelligo supra mensuram, quia ut astra coeli atque arenam maris, ita mea innumerabilia cognosco esse delicta. Insuper etiam ira, tristitia, acedia, jactantia atque desidia. Unde principalibus vitiis obnoxium me esse profiteor; sed tu, qui non vis mortem peccatoris, respice in me et miserere miseri hujus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.51.2 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
- ↩Ps.51.1 — To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
- ↩Gen.22.17 — because I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies;
- ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
- ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy companion
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