Preces Quotidianae
The Two Things I Know
The soul confesses its own sin and nature, pleading that God's redeeming work not be undone by human wickedness.
Lord, I know two things in myself: Nature, which You made, and Sin, which I added. I confess that by my fault I have deformed nature; but remember that I am a spirit that goes and does not return. For by myself I cannot turn back from sin.1 Ah! Take from me what I have done; let what You made remain in me, so that what You redeemed with Your precious blood may not perish. Ah! Do not let my wickedness destroy what Your goodness has redeemed.
The Unanswerable Questions
The soul asks a series of rhetorical questions that pit human guilt against divine mercy, concluding that mercy cannot be destroyed by sin.
Lord, my God, if I have made myself guilty before You—could I ever make myself no longer Your servant? If by that I stripped myself of innocence, did I also by that destroy Your mercy? If I have done something for which You could condemn me, have You also lost that by which You always save?
Mercy Surpasses All
The soul admits its conscience deserves damnation but declares that God's mercy surpasses every offense.
It is true, Lord: my conscience deserves damnation, But your mercy surpasses every offense.
Read the original Latin
Dvo in me cognosco, Domine, Naturam, quam "Tu fecisti, Peccatum, quod ego adjeci; Fateor quod per culpam deformavi naturam, sed memento quod sum spiritus vadens, non rediens; Per meipsum enim a peccato redire non possum. Eja! tolle a me quod ego feci, Remaneat in me quod Tu fecisti ; Ut ne pereat, quod pretioso Tuo sanguine redemisti. Eja! ne perdat improbitas mea, quod redemit bonitas Tua. Domine, Deus mi, si feci, ut essem reus Tuus, Nunquid facere potui, ut non essem servus Tuus? Si inde innocentiam mihi ademi, Nunquid et inde misericordiam Tuam peremi? Si commisi, unde me damnare posses, Nunquid et Tu amisisti, unde salvare soles?
Verum est, Domine, conscientia mea meretur damnationem,
Sed misericordia Tua superat omnem offensionem.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reads Dvo; translated as Duo (“two”), the only plausible intended form in this antithesis of Nature and Sin.
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