Preces Quotidianae

Invocation to the Holy Spirit

The prayer begins by addressing the Holy Spirit, pleading for mercy and turning back to God.

And you, Most Holy, good, life-giving Spirit: do not despise me, your breath; do not despise what is holy to you.^✦¹ But turn, Lord — how long? And² Be open to the plea of your servant.^✦

Blessing for the Dawn and Deliverance

Blessing God who turns darkness into dawn, renews the earth, and delivers from the terrors and pestilence of the night.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, God of our fathers, who turn the shadow of death into dawn.^✦³⁴ 8.⁵ And You renew the face of the earth.⁶ You drive the darkness away from the face of the light, You who take away the night and bring back the day; you who have enlightened my eyes, so that I wouldn't fall asleep in death.⁷ — Ps. xii.⁸ 3. You who have delivered me from the terror of the night,^✦ from the pestilence that walks about in the darkness.^✦⁹

Thanksgiving for Sleep and Waking

Thanksgiving for God's care during sleep, the joy of morning and evening, and the assurance of rising again.

You who made sleep pass from my eyes,^✦ and drowsiness from my eyelids.¹⁰ You who make the going out of morning and evening rejoice.^✦¹¹ For I lay down, and I slept, and I rose again.^✦ For you, Lord, have upheld me. For I was awakened from sleep, and I saw, And my sleep was sweet to me.

Petition for Forgiveness

A plea for God to blot out sins like a cloud and scatter them like morning mist, with citation references.

Lord, blot out my iniquities like a night cloud, and scatter.¹² like the morning mist, my sins.^✦¹³ 756.¹⁴ 44.¹⁵ 22.¹⁶

Petition to Be a Child of Light

A request to be made a child of light and of the day, with a citation from 1 Thessalonians.

Grant me that I may be a child of light, a child of the day, 1.^✦ Thess.¹⁷ v. 5.

Read the original Latin

Et tu Sanctissime, bone, Vivifice Spiritus, Ne me despicias Spiraculum tuum, Sancta tua ne despicias. Sed convertere, Domine, usquequo? et

Deprecabilis esto super servo tuo.

BENEDICTUS es, Domme, Deus noster, Deus Patrum nostrorum, Qui convertis in auroram umbram mortis, — os v. 8. Et renovas faciem terre. Qui dispellis tenebras a facie lucis,

Qui amoves noctem et reducis diem : Qui illuminasti oculos meos,

Ne obdormirem im morte. — Ps. xin. 3. Qui liberasti me a terrore nocturno,

A negotio perambulante im tenebris. Qui transire fecisti somnum ab oculis meis,

Et a palpebris meis dormitationem. Qui ovare facis exitus matutini et vespertini temporis. Quia decubui, et obdormivi, et exsurrexi.

Quoniam tu, Domine, suscepisti me.

Quia de somno suscitatus sum, et vidi,

Et somnus meus dulcis mihi erat.

Dele, Domine, sicut nubem noctis iniquitates meas, et dissipa

sicut matutinam nebulam peccata mea. 756. xliv. 22.

Da mihi, ut sim filius lucis, filius diei, 1. 7/Less. v. 5.

Scripture echoes

↩Gen.2.7 — Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
↩Ps.90.13 — Return, O LORD—how long?—and relent concerning your servants.
↩Amos.5.8 — The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into morning and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth—the LORD is his name.
↩Ps.91.5 — You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
↩Ps.91.6 — Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that ravages at midday.
↩Ps.132.4 — I will not give sleep to my eyes, to my eyelids slumber
↩Ps.64.9 — And they made their tongue a stumbling block against themselves; all who see them will shake their heads.
↩Ps.3.6 — I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustains me.
↩Isa.44.22 — I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
↩1Thess.5.5 — For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Notes

1 ↩Spiraculum tuum is taken in apposition to me (I who am your breath / the breath you gave), echoing the biblical breath-of-life sense; Sancta tua as 'what is holy to you / your holy things,' not a personal plural.
2 ↩Standalone et is a clause-joining fragment; the petition continues in the next section (Deprecabilis esto super servo tuo).
3 ↩Source reads Domme; translated as Domine (Lord), the only plausible form in this address.
4 ↩Trailing source fragment '— os v.' looks like a truncated verse citation and was not rendered as sense.
5 ↩Bare numeral; treated as a printed verse/section marker, not prose.
6 ↩Source terre taken as terrae (of the earth).
7 ↩Source reads 'im morte'; translated as the clearly intended 'in morte' (so that I would not fall asleep in death), continuing the preceding petition that God has enlightened the speaker's eyes.
8 ↩Source fragment 'xin.' is almost certainly a garbled Roman numeral for the Psalm number (most plausibly xii., matching the Illumina oculos meos / ne obdormiam in morte petition in Vulgate Psalm 12).
9 ↩Source reads im tenebris; taken as in tenebris (in the darkness), matching the Vulgate psalm wording and the same im/in slip in the neighboring section.
10 ↩Continues the syntax of the previous sentence (Qui transire fecisti somnum ab oculis meis): the verb is still implied—God who made sleep pass from the eyes also made drowsiness pass from the eyelids.
11 ↩Latin ovare (to rejoice / triumph) with facis + infinitive: God causes the exitus (outgoings) of morning and evening to rejoice. Gloss fallback had no help; reading is the standard psalm sense, not orare.
12 ↩Printed section ends mid-petition at et dissipa; the object and simile continue in the next section (sicut matutinam nebulam peccata mea).
13 ↩Continues the previous petition (Dele, Domine… et dissipa): full sense is ‘and scatter my sins like the morning mist.’ Rendered as the supplied clause only.
14 ↩Bare numeral; likely edition/page or apparatus reference, not prose. Left as printed.
15 ↩Latin Roman numeral xliv rendered as Arabic 44; with following ‘22.’ and the Isaiah-cloud wording, this is very likely a chapter citation (Isa 44).
16 ↩Bare verse-style numeral; with xliv and the cloud/mist petition, candidate is Isaiah 44:22.
17 ↩Source reads '7/Less.'; most plausible intended reading is 'Thess.' as part of a 1 Thess. citation.

Preces Privatae (Private Devotions) companion

A prayer for every moment, already on your phone

Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.

Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.

One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere

Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →