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Chapter 111PrecesPriv.1.111

Preces Quotidianae

Evening Prayer: A Sacrifice of Praise

The opening gathers evening psalms and prayers, invoking God as the one who gives songs in the night and receiving the believer's prayer as incense.

So at night his song is with me, and a prayer to the God of my life.1 Ps. 41. 10. So I will bless you in my life, and in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 62. 5. Let my prayer be directed like incense in your sight, the lifting up of my hands2 The evening sacrifice.✦ Ps. 140.3 2.✦

Thanksgiving for Preservation

Thanksgiving is offered to God for creating day and night, delivering from daily evil, and sparing life from being cut short.

Blessed are you, Lord, our God, God of our fathers, who created the cycles of day and night, who give songs in the night—Job✦4 35. 10. who have delivered us from the evil of this day—Matt.✦5 6. who have not cut off my life as a weaver would,6

Evening Confession of Sin

The believer confesses the heap of daily sins, acknowledges the righteous fall many times, and in wonder calls upon the Lord's mercy.

nor have you taken me away from morning until evening. Evening Confession of Sin. Lord, just as day is added to day, so we add sin to sin.7 The righteous person falls seven times a day, as it says in Proverbs. 24. 16. I, a wretched sinner, fall seventy times seven, as it says in Matthew.8 18.✦9 22. even to the point of amazement and wonder; O Lord.

Return to the Heart

Turning from evil with a groan, the penitent returns to the heart and wholeheartedly turns back to God.

But I turn from my evil ways with a groan.✦10 xxx.11 15.12 and I return to my heart,✦ and with my whole heart I return to you,✦13

Read the original Latin

ideo nocte apud me Canticum ejus, et oratio ad Deum vite mew. Psa/. xli. 10. Sic benedicam tibi in vita mea, et in nomine tuo levabo manus meas. Psal lxii. 5. Dirigatur oratio mea, sicut incensum in conspectu tuo, elevatio manuum mearum

Sacrificium vespertinum. — Psal. cxh. 2.

Benedictus es, Domine, Deus noster, Deus patrum nostrorum, qui creasti vices diel et noctis, qui das carmina de nocte, Job. xxxv. 10. qui liberasti nos a malitia diei hujus, Maff. vi. qui non precidisti sicut textor vitam meam,

neque de mane vesperam usque abstulisti me.

CONFESSIO VESPERTINA PECCATI.

DowINE, Sicut dies super dies, sic peccata super peccata adjicimus. Septies in die cadit justus, Pro. xxiv. 16. Ego miser peccator septuagies septies, Maít. xvin. 22. etiam ad stuporem et mirabilia; O Domine.

Sed convertor a viis meis malis cum gemitu, 15. xxx. 15. et ad cor meum revertor,

et in toto corde ad te revertor, (

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.141.2 — May my prayer be set before you as incense; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
  2. ↩Ps.141.2 — May my prayer be set before you as incense; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
  3. ↩Job.35.10 — And no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,'
  4. ↩Matt.6.34;Matt.6.13 — Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matt.6.13 — And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
  5. ↩Matt.18.22 — Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'
  6. ↩Ezek.33.11;Ezek.18.30;Jer.25.5 — 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.18.30 — Therefore I will judge each one of you according to your ways, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not become a stumbling block for you. Jer.25.5 — saying, 'Turn back, each one, from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and remain upon the land that the LORD has given to you and to your fathers, from everlasting to everlasting.'
  7. ↩Isa.46.8 — Remember this, and stand firm; take it to heart, you transgressors.
  8. ↩1Sam.7.3;Deut.30.2 — And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, put away the foreign gods from among you and the Ashtaroths, and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." Deut.30.2 — and you return to the LORD your God and obey his voice, according to all that I am commanding you today—you and your children—with all your heart and with all your soul,

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source ends with corrupt 'vite mew'; translated as intended 'vitae meae' ('of my life'), matching the usual psalm wording.
  2. 2 ↩Clause is incomplete in this section; the next section continues with 'Sacrificium vespertinum' ('evening sacrifice').
  3. 3 ↩Source reads 'cxh.', which is not a valid Roman numeral. Most plausible intended reading is 'cxl.' (140), matching Vulgate Ps 140 for 'sacrificium vespertinum'.
  4. 4 ↩Source reading diel is almost certainly diei (‘of the day’); translated as ‘day and night’.
  5. 5 ↩Source abbreviation Maff. is almost certainly Matt. (Matthew); rendered as Matt.
  6. 6 ↩Source precidisti is the expected praecidisti (‘cut off / cut short’); sicut textor is the weaver image from Isaiah 38:12.
  7. 7 ↩Source reads 'DowINE'; translated as Domine ('Lord'), the only plausible vocative in this confession opening.
  8. 8 ↩Source ends 'Maít.'; read as Matt. (Matthew), parallel to 'Pro.' in s2.
  9. 9 ↩Source reads 'xvin.'; most plausible intended form is xviii (18), Matthew chapter for the seventy-times-seven saying.
  10. 10 ↩Trailing arabic '15.' likely citation debris or a mis-split verse marker; the continuous prayer sense is 'But I turn from my evil ways with a groan'.
  11. 11 ↩Bare Roman chapter numeral, almost certainly a scripture-citation fragment (parallel to neighboring Pro. xxiv. / Matt. xviii. splits); book name not present in this section.
  12. 12 ↩Bare verse number, almost certainly completing a scripture citation with preceding 'xxx.'.
  13. 13 ↩Source ends with an unmatched opening parenthesis after the clause; treated as stray print/OCR punctuation and not rendered.

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