Preces Quotidianae
The Horror of Damnation
The soul contemplates the terrors of hell, separation from God and the saints, and the agony of unanswered prayer.
Wretched—three times wretched—with the demons in the darkness, down below, in the abyss that even the Devil himself trembles at and recoils from in horror, in the vision.12 Of God—under His turning away.3 It is hard to be cut off from the saints. It's even harder to be separated from God.4 To be bound without glory and cast out. How miserable to be thrown into the fire.✦5 It's hard to cry out and not receive help. It's bitter to ask without pity for a drop—6 ...a drop of water, and not obtain it.7
A Litany for Deliverance
The prayer shifts to a litany of deliverance, invoking scriptural examples of evil and pleading for rescue from all forms of harm.
From every evil and misfortune, deliver me. From those of corrupt mind, 1 Timothy8 6. 5.✦ From Assyria, Hosea✦9 11. 5.✦ Jeroboam, 1 Kings 11. 27.✦ Rehoboam, 1 Kings 12. 13.✦ the Valley of Achor, (Joshua 7. 24.]✦10 From the evil spirit of the Shechemites, Judges✦ 9.✦ 23.✦ From every scandal, grief, and disgrace; from a deceitful tongue, from twisted lips, from snares; from all enemies, visible and invisible, bodily and spiritual; from vices and sins, and from disordered desires and temptations,11
Read the original Latin
Miser, Ter miser, cum Dsemonibus in tenebris, Deorsum, In abysso, quam et ipse Diabolus tremit et perhorrescit, In visione. Dei, In aversatione. Durum a Sanctis separari,
Durius a Deo,
Inglorium Ligari, ejici.
ZErumnosum In ignem projici.
Grave Clamare et non adjuvari. Amarum Sine commiseratione petere gut-
tam aqu:, et non impetrare.
: Ab omni malo et infortunio, Eripe j : : A corruptis mente, 1 Tm. vi. 5. Ab Ashur, Hos. xi. 5. Jeroboam, 1 Reg. xi.
27. Roboam, 1 Reg. xii. 13. Valle Achor, (Jos. vii. 24.] A spiritu malo Sichemitarum, Jud.
ix. 23. Ab omni scandalo, dolore, infamia, ( lingua dolosa, A «4 labus perversis, laqueis, Ab omnibus visibilibus, invisibilibus, inimicis corporeis, spiritualibus, Ἢ { vitiis et peccatis, concupiscentiis et tentationibus,
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.15.6 — If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and is dried up; and they gather them, and throw them into the fire, and it is burned.
- ↩1Tim.6.5 — constant friction among people whose minds are corrupted and who have been robbed of the truth, supposing that godliness is a means of gain.
- ↩Hos.11.5 — He will not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria—he is their king, because they refused to repent.
- ↩Hos.11.5 — He will not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria—he is their king, because they refused to repent.
- ↩1Kgs.11.27 — And this is the thing that he raised his hand against the king: Solomon built the Millo and closed up the breach of the city of David his father.
- ↩1Kgs.12.13 — The king answered the people harshly, and he abandoned the counsel of the elders who had advised him.
- ↩Josh.7.24 — Then Joshua took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his ox, his donkey, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and all Israel with him; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.
- ↩Judg.9.23 — God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.
- ↩Judg.9.23 — God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.
- ↩Judg.9.23 — God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reading Dsemonibus is treated as Daemonibus (demons); likely OCR/print corruption of æ/ae.
- 2 ↩In visione may complete a split phrase with the next sentence (In visione Dei, “in the vision of God”), or stand alone as “at the sight [of it]” modifying the Devil’s terror; rendering preserves the supplied sentence break.
- 3 ↩Aversatio here is God’s aversive turning-away (the damned under divine rejection), not mere human dislike. Dei may complete prior In visione as In visione Dei.
- 4 ↩Elliptical continuation of the preceding phrase (Durum a Sanctis separari): comparative Durius supplies 'harder,' and separari is understood from the parallel.
- 5 ↩Source surface ZErumnosum is almost certainly a print/OCR corruption of Latin aerumnosum (from aerumna, hardship/misery): ‘wretched/calamitous.’ Translated on that corrected reading.
- 6 ↩Source ends mid-word at 'gut-'; read as truncated guttam ('a drop'), continued in the next section (aquae / et non impetrare).
- 7 ↩Source text is corrupt/fragmented: 'tam aqu:, et non impetrare.' Neighboring previous sentence ends mid-word ('petere gut-'). Most plausible reconstruction is continuation of 'petere guttam aquae, et non impetrare' — 'to ask for a drop of water, and not obtain it.'
- 8 ↩Source reading 'Eripe j' is almost certainly corrupt OCR/print for the standard prayer imperative 'Eripe me' ('deliver me'); rendered on that sense.
- 9 ↩Latin Ashur is the biblical proper name Asshur/Assyria; rendered 'Assyria' for modern readability.
- 10 ↩Source has 24.] after an opening parenthesis at Jos.; brackets are mismatched (likely print/OCR noise for Josh. 7:24).
- 11 ↩Source shows OCR corruption: 'A «4 labus perversis' read as 'a labiis perversis' (from twisted/perverse lips); stray marks 'Ἢ {' ignored as noise before 'vitiis'.
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