Preces Quotidianae
Christ's Groaning as Our Example
Bede teaches that Christ groaned to give us an example of how to groan in prayer.
Bede. That's why Christ groaned: to give us an example of how to groan.✦1
The Usefulness of Supplication
Arnobius explains that God does not need our supplication, but it benefits us by taking our own good into account.
Arnobius. God doesn't want us to be suppliants, and He doesn't love to see us cast down; this usefulness is ours, and it takes our own good into account.2
Prayer and Mercy
Augustine succinctly states that prayer rises while mercy descends.
Augustine.3 Prayer rises, and mercy comes down.
God's Grace and Our Asking
Ambrose teaches that God's grace always exceeds our requests and that God commands us to ask, promising to give.
Ambrose. God's grace is richer than prayer: God always gives more than He is asked. Ambrose.4 God commands you to ask, and he teaches you what to ask for, and he promises what you ask, and it displeases him if you don't ask—and still you don't ask?
The Essence of Prayer
Two unattributed sayings define prayer as a summary of faith and the interpreter of hope, and as the means by which we approach God.
Prayer is a summary of faith, the interpreter of hope. We go to God not by footsteps, but by prayers.
Meditation, Intercession, and Final Help
A heading introduces starting points for meditation, followed by Augustine on the gift of mutual intercession and Jerome on prayers that help in this age and at the judgment seat of Christ.
Starting points for meditation, preceding.5 Augustine.6 The Apostle says it is an inexpressible gift of God when many help one another with mutual services, and pray for each other, and give thanks.78 Jerome. In this present age, we know that we, by prayers,9 can be helped; but when before the judgment seat of Christ✦10
Read the original Latin
Beda. ldeo Christus ingemuit, ut nobis gemendi daret exemplum.
Arnob. Non desiderat Deus nos supplices esse, aut amat substerni; utilitas hzec nostra est, e£ commodi nostri rationem habet.
-ug. Ascendit precatio, descendit miseratio.
Ambr. Uberior est Dei gratia quam precatio: semper plus tribuit Deus quam rogatur.
Ambr. Jubet Deus ut petas, et docet quid petas, et promittit quod petis, et displicet Ei, si non petis; et tu non petis tamen ?
Oratio est breviarium fidei, interpres spei.
Non passibus, sed precibus, itur ad Deum.
Meditationum ἀφορμαὶ ante.
Aug. Inenarrabile donum Dei esse dicit Apostolus, dum plurimi sibi mutui succurrunt officiis, et pro se mutuo orant, et gratias agunt.
Hieron. lu presenti seculo, scimus nos orationibus
posse adjuvari; cum autem ante tribunal Christi
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mark.7.34;John.11.33 — And looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him, 'Ephphatha,' which means, 'Be opened.' John.11.33 — When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled himself.
- ↩2Cor.5.10;Ezek.14.14 — For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what has been done through the body, whether good or evil. Ezek.14.14 — Even if these three men were in it—Noah, Daniel, and Job—they would deliver only their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reading 'ldeo' is almost certainly a corruption of 'Ideo' (Therefore / That's why); translated from that corrected sense.
- 2 ↩Normalized corrupt forms: 'hzec' → 'haec'; 'e£' → 'et'. Sense: prayerful humility benefits us, not God.
- 3 ↩Source reads "-ug.", almost certainly a damaged author tag for Aug. (Augustine), matching the chapter’s short patristic attributions (Arnob., Ambr.).
- 4 ↩Source abbreviation Ambr. expanded as the author attribution Ambrose (Ambrosius).
- 5 ↩ἀφορμαί is Greek for starting points / materials / occasions (seed-thoughts for meditation). Latin ante is elliptical as a heading tag; rendered as 'preceding' rather than a full clause.
- 6 ↩Abbreviated attribution Aug. expanded as Augustine (Augustinus), matching the section’s source-label style (cf. nearby Hieron.).
- 7 ↩inenarrabile donum echoes the Pauline phrase for God’s unspeakable gift; rendered here as ‘inexpressible gift’ in Modern Readable register rather than KJV ‘unspeakable.’
- 8 ↩sibi mutui…officiis is slightly awkward Latin (expected mutuis officiis); sense taken as mutual mutual-aid by services/duties of kindness, not formal ecclesiastical ‘offices.’
- 9 ↩Opening 'lu' is treated as a corrupt remnant of 'In' before 'praesenti saeculo' (printed 'presenti seculo'); the clause is incomplete and continues in the next section with 'posse adjuvari…'.
- 10 ↩Section is a mid-clause fragment: posse adjuvari continues the prior orationibus construction, and cum autem ante tribunal Christi awaits the verb in the next section (venerimus).
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