Preces Quotidianae
A Plea for Mercy
The petitioner asks God for mercy, acknowledging his sinfulness and the greatness of God's mercy, and clings to God with a desperate faith.
I do not ask you to do anything except what you have done so often, and what you do so gladly; and unless you keep doing it again and again, no flesh will stand, no one will endure.✦1 Have mercy on a sinner—the greatest of sinners, and therefore one who needs the greatest mercy. And yours is the greatest, reaching all the way to the heavens and snatching us from the lowest hell.✦✦2 It is wonderful. Make your mercy toward me wonderful: if you want to glorify it beyond all measure, stretch it out to me.3 Never has it—never has it—been more glorious in the pardon of any sinner, nor will it ever be.4 Lord, if you want me to leave you, give me another you; otherwise, I won't let you go.✦✦5 May the Spirit of truth teach me the truth.✦
Confession of Sin
The petitioner confesses his sins openly, acknowledges his grief is insufficient, and admits his inability to feel the sorrow he ought.
IV. To you, Lord, I confess—because even if I wanted to hide them, I cannot—my sins, so many, so great, so grievous. I also declare that I grieve—and You know that too. But I have sinned more—far more—than the sorrow I have at hand with which to weep for my sins.6 I lack such deep sorrow—I lack it entirely. I am far from what it is right for me to be.7 I can sin a great deal;
Read the original Latin
Nec peto ut facias Nisi quod fecisti szepissime, Et facis libentissime ; Quod nisi facturus etiam atque etiam, Non subsistet ulla caro, Nemo sustinebit. Miserere peccatoris, peccatoris maximi, Ac proin maxima misericordia indigentis. Et Tibi maxima est, Et ad coelos usque pertingens, Et erpiens de inferno inferiori. Mirifica est. Mirifica misericordiam 'Tuam erga me: Quam si vis glorificare in immensum, Pretende mihi eam. Nunquam ea, nunquam ea in peccatoris cujusquam venia aut fuit, Magis gloriosa 1 aut futura est. Domme, si vis ut recedam a Te, da mihi alium "Te, Alioqui non dimittam Te. Spiritus veritatis doceat me veritatem.
IV. Tibi, Domine, confiteor (Quia, si volo, abscondere non possum); Tibi peccata mea plurima, maxima, gravissima. Profiteor et dolere me, quod et Tu nosti. Sed peccasse me plus magis prout dolor est, Qui mihi adjacet quo peccata defleam. Deest mihi dolor tantus, deest plane. Longe absum ab eo quam par est esse.
Multum peccare possum;
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.24.22;Mark.13.20 — And if those days were not cut short, no flesh would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Mark.13.20 — And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no flesh would have been saved; but because of the elect, whom he chose, he cut short the days.
- ↩Ps.57.10 — I will give thanks to you among the peoples, O Lord; I will sing praise to you among the nations.
- ↩Ps.86.13 — For your steadfast love is great toward me, and you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
- ↩Gen.32.26 — And he saw that he could not prevail against him, and he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him.
- ↩John.6.68 — Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
- ↩John.14.17 — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he abides with you and will be in you.
Notes
- 1 ↩Reading szepissime as saepissime (OCR/ligature corruption).
- 2 ↩Reading erpiens as eripiens (snatching/rescuing).
- 3 ↩Mirifica taken as imperative of mirifico ('make wonderful / show marvelously'), not merely the adjective; matches the following petition structure.
- 4 ↩Ignored stray numeral '1' after gloriosa as footnote/OCR artifact; sense taken as nunquam ... magis gloriosa aut fuit aut futura est.
- 5 ↩Reading Domme as Domine.
- 6 ↩Latin plus magis prout is compressed and slightly awkward; rendered as a double comparative of excess (sin outweighs available sorrow), not as a pure proportion clause.
- 7 ↩In context, eo most naturally points back to the fitting measure of sorrow; the English keeps the broader existential understatement of the Latin (ab eo ... esse).
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