Preces Quotidianae
The Day's Walk
The day begins with the apostle's summons to live soberly, chastely, and decently, grounded in the scriptural warrant.
Kept from Sin
The worshiper asks to be kept this day without sin and from a hardened heart, leaning on God's upholding mercy.
Please keep me from sin this day. You who uphold the one who is slipping and raise up the one who has fallen: grant that I may never harden my heart—through provocation, temptation, or the deceit of any sin. Ps. 145.2 14. Ps. 95.3 8.
Morning Mercies and Protection
A series of psalmic petitions asks for deliverance from hidden dangers, vain days, and for hearing God's mercy in the morning.
Hebrews✦ 11. 8, 13.✦ Also deliver me today from the snare of the hunters, from the harsh word, from the arrow that flies by day, from sudden affliction, from the noonday demon.4 Free me this day from my own malice; free me from the malice of this day.5 Let my days not waste away in vanity, nor my years in grief.✦6 Let day pour out a word to day—let today hand on yesterday's knowledge or some work.✦7 Make me hear your mercy in the morning, for I have put my hope in you.✦
Teach Me Your Way
In the face of enemies and uncertainty, the soul asks God to teach the way, rescue from foes, and lead by his good Spirit.
Show me the way I should walk, for I have lifted up my soul to you. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I have fled to you for refuge. Verse. 9. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your good Spirit will lead me onto level ground.8 Verse. 10.
For Your Name's Sake
The daily prayer ends in trust that for his name's sake God will give life and bring the soul out of trouble.
For your name's sake, Lord, you will give me life; in your righteousness you will bring me out of trouble.9
Read the original Latin
Sicut in die sobrie, caste, osea ambulare. Rom.
Dignare me isto die sine peccato custodire. Qui sustines labentem, erigis lapsum, concede, nequando obdurem cor, aut exacerbatione, aut tentatione, aut fallacia peccati quacunque. Ps. cxlv. 14. Ps. xcev. 8.
Heb. 11. 8,13. Etiam libera me hodie De laqueo venantium, De aspero verbo, A sagitta volante per diem, A Symptomate, A Dxemonio meridiano. Α malitia mea libera diem hunc, A malitia diei hujus libera me. Ne deficiant in vanitate dies mei, Anni meiin luctu. Dies diei eructet verbum, — Hodierna hesternz scientiam aut opus aliquod. Auditam fac mihi mane misericordiam tuam, Quia in te speravi.
Notam fac mihi viam, in qua ambulem, Quia ad te levavi animam meam. Eripe me de inimicis meis, Domine, Quia ad Te confugi. Vers. 9. Doce me facere voluntatem tuam, Quia Deus meus es tu. Spiritus tuus bonus deducet me In terram rectam. Vers. 10.
Propter nomen tuum, Domine, vivificabis me: In justitia tua educes de tribulatione
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.13.13 — Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
- ↩Heb.11.8 — By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
- ↩Heb.11.8 — By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
- ↩Ps.78.33 — So he ended their days in vanity, and their years in sudden terror.
- ↩Ps.19.2 — The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.
- ↩Ps.143.8 — Let me hear your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source has 'osea' before 'ambulare', which is not a clear Latin adverb. Most plausible intended reading is 'honeste' (decently/uprightly), the key adverb of Romans 13:13 ('sicut in die honeste ambulemus'), with 'sobrie' and 'caste' as complementary Pauline moral adverbs. Rendered on that basis pending source check.
- 2 ↩Latin citation uses Roman numeral cxlv (Vulgate Psalm numbering).
- 3 ↩Source reads xcev.; most plausible intended form is xcv. (Vulgate Psalm 95), matching the harden-not-your-heart petition and verse 8 that follows.
- 4 ↩Dxemonio read as daemonio (demon); Symptomate treated as Latinized symptoma (sudden affliction/assault), in psalm-sequence parallel with the noonday demon.
- 5 ↩Opening Α is a Greek alpha used for Latin A ('from'); malitia rendered as malice (active ill will / wickedness), not mere misfortune.
- 6 ↩Normalized meiin as mei in ('my [years] in').
- 7 ↩hesternz read as hesternae (of yesterday). Second clause is elliptical after the psalm line.
- 8 ↩in terram rectam can mean 'onto level ground,' 'into a right land,' or 'into the land of uprightness'; level ground preferred for natural modern sense of rectam.
- 9 ↩The printed unit ends mid-clause; neighboring next section continues with animam meam (my soul). Rendering supplies the natural English object ('me') implied by vivificabis me and the Psalm continuum, without adding soul until that word appears.
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