Preces Quotidianae
The Crucified Lord
The poet contemplates Christ stretched on the cross, his head bowed and hands pierced.
Stretched out on the four-armed cross?1 Bowing his gentle head so graciously,✦2 And stretching the sacred strength of his arms across, with merciless nails✦3 Pierced through in every direction.4
A Call to Mourn
The poet exhorts the soul to weep, tear garments, beat the breast, and grieve deeply over the passion.
Wretched man, do you look on these things unmoved?5 Weep freely, Tear your clothes, And beat your breast, And tear at your hair, and trouble him to the very core.
The Blood-Stained Savior
The poet describes Christ's body stained with blood from the crown of thorns and the scourges.
Don't you see him stained in purple?✦6 But not gleaming with flame of Tyre’s sea—rather,7 With blood dripping, Partly from the temples Girded with thorns✦8 With the cut biting fiercely; Partly from the limbs With the lashes that marked him9 With a bitter embrace.
A Prayer for Tears
The poet begs God to open his eyes to weep, that his tears may mingle with Christ's outpoured blood.
Open, open. the gates of the eyes; And open the springs of my tears: sprinkle the earth, soak it,✦ With him so generously pouring out his own blood. To drip a few scant tears
A Warning Against Envy
A brief exclamation on the destructive power of envy.
How great envy is, O man!10
Heading and Fragment
A section heading and an untranslatable corrupted line.
Private Prayers.11 [Untranslatable: source corrupted. No continuous Latin sentence can be recovered from 'Ou qo DUC T-LMPTNT AES'.]12
The Foundation of Prayer
A series of aphorisms on faith as the basis of prayer, attributed to Theophylact and the liturgy.
Part Three. Faith is the foundation and basis of prayer.13 — Theophylact.14 God's promise is the foundation of faith. Lift up your hearts.
Teachings on Prayer
A collection of scriptural and patristic sayings on the nature and disposition of prayer.
He who gave us life also taught us to pray. — Ecclesiasticus. 35. The prayer of one who humbles himself will pierce the clouds. Prayer is a conversation with God. I will set my sins before me, so that they may not be before You. Lord, my heart is ready. Lord, I fear that it is not. If only it were ready.
Preparing the Heart
The poet confesses his unreadiness and asks God to help him prepare for prayer.
It's a shame that it isn't. Lord, I am setting myself in order and preparing. Help my disposition, and15 Complete my preparation.
Confession of Faith
A profession of faith beginning with 'I believe' and expanding into the articles of the Creed.
Confession of Faith. I believe, Lord; help unbelief.16 my,✦17 In God, 1. Father, 2. Almighty, 39. Creator of heaven and earth.18
Meditation on the Creed
Reflection on the attributes of God the Father: affection, power, and providence.
In the Father, natural affection; in the Almighty, saving power; in the Creator, providence, for the preservation, governance, perfection, or completion of all things.
Confession of Christ
A confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the mystery of the incarnation.
In Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord,✦ the great mystery of godliness, for19 us human beings and for our salvation✦20 God made manifest in the flesh,✦ Man who is God,
Read the original Latin
Extensus quadrijugo stipite? Mansuetum caput Amocene inclimans,
Et brachiorum sacrum robur Transversum expandens, Immitibus clavis
Perfossum hie et illic.
Homo miselle, hzeccine 1mmotus aspicis?
Plora ubertim,
Vestem conscinde,
Et tunde pectus,
Ac vellica crinem,
Medullitusque perturbare. Nonne cernis totum-purpuratum ?
Sed haud fulgentem flamma
Tyri maris, verum
Sanguine stillante,
Partim a temporibus
Cinctis spinarum
Acriter mordente incisura ;
Partim ex artubus
Insignitis flagellis
Amaro amplexu.
Aperi, aperi
Portas oculorum ;
Et fontes palpebrarum Solve: irrora, madefac terram,
Cum illo largiter
Proprium cruorem effundente.
Pauculas quasdam distillare lachrymas
Quzmam invidia sit, O homo
PRECES PRIVAT ZE 2o EU. Ou qo DUC T-LMPTNT AES
PARS TERTIA.
OnarroNISs fundamentum et basis est fides. — Zheophylact. Fidei fundamentum est Dei promissio. Sursum corda.
Qui fecit vivere docuit et orare, Eccl. xxxv. Oratio humiliantis se nubes penetrabit. Oratio cum Deo collocutio est. Ponam peccata meam coram me, ut non sint coram Te. Domine, paratum est cor meum. Domine, metuo ne non sit. Utinam esset paratum.
Hei mihi quod non est. Domine, dispono me et preparo. Adjuva dispositionem, et
preparationem meam supple.
CONFESSIO FIDEI.
CnEDOo, Domine, adjuva incredulitatem. meam,
In Deum,
1. Patrem, 2. Omnipotentem, 39. Creatorem col et terra.
In Patrem, naturalem affectionem, Omnipotentem, potentiam salvificam, Creatorem, Providentiam,
ad conservationem, gubernationem, perfectionem, vel consummationem, omnium.
In Jesum
Christum, Filium suum unigenitum, Dominum nostrum,
Magnum pietatis sacramentum, pro
nobis hominibus et salute nostra
manifestum in carne Deum,
Hominem Deum,
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
- ↩John.20.25;Ps.22.16 — So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' Ps.22.16 — My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; and you lay me down in the dust of death.
- ↩John.19.2 — And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, placed it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.
- ↩John.19.2 — And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, placed it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.
- ↩Jer.9.1 — Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for travelers, that I might leave my people and go away from them—for they are all adulterers, a company of traitors.
- ↩Mark.9.24 — Immediately the father of the child cried out, 'I believe; help my unbelief!'
- ↩John.3.16 — For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.
- ↩1Tim.3.16 — And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: who was revealed in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
- ↩1Tim.3.16 — And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: who was revealed in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
Notes
- 1 ↩quadrijugo stipite: stipes is the poetic term for the Cross-tree; quadrijugus points to its four extremities (upright and crossbeam). Rendered as 'four-armed cross' for clarity; 'four-ended tree' is equally possible.
- 2 ↩Source reads 'Amocene inclimans'. Most plausible intended reading is amoene inclinans ('gracefully/sweetly bowing'). Translated from that corrected sense.
- 3 ↩Fragmentary passion-verse clause (participle + ablative of means) continuing the crucifixion scene from the previous section; no finite verb. robur = strength/might of the arms; Transversum = crosswise / across the transverse beam; Immitibus clavis = with merciless (cruel) nails.
- 4 ↩Source reads 'hie'; almost certainly a typesetting/OCR corruption of 'hic' ('here'), yielding the common Passion phrasing 'hic et illic' ('here and there'). Translated on that reading.
- 5 ↩Normalized from corrupt source 'hzeccine 1mmotus' to intended 'haeccine immotus' (interrogative haec + -ne; immotus).
- 6 ↩purpuratum may mean dyed/clad in purple (the mock-royal robe) or stained purple with blood; the rendering keeps both possibilities open.
- 7 ↩Fragmentary line likely continuing the previous section’s ‘flamma’ (flame/glitter of Tyrian purple dye from the murex of Tyre’s waters). ‘verum’ read as adversative ‘rather/but,’ leading into the next line’s blood imagery.
- 8 ↩Fragmentary ablative/genitive phrase (cinctis + gen. spinarum). Rendered as Passion imagery of being bound or encircled by thorns; fuller syntax may depend on adjoining sections.
- 9 ↩Insignitis flagellis is an ablative phrase; insignitis (from insignio/insignitus) can mean ‘marking,’ ‘branding,’ or ‘that marked.’ Rendered to keep both the means (scourges) and the sense of being stamped/branded by them, in line with neighboring Passion fragments.
- 10 ↩Source surface Quzmam is almost certainly corrupt OCR; translated as Quanta/Quantam (or possibly Quamnam): an exclamatory 'how great is envy.'
- 11 ↩Source 'PRECES PRIVAT ZE 2o EU.' is heavily OCR-damaged. The recoverable core is PRECES PRIVATAE (Private Prayers / Private Devotions), matching the work title. The trailing 'ZE 2o EU' looks like running-header, signature, catchword, or other page apparatus rather than body text, and the acquisition note says such furniture should already have been filtered.
- 12 ↩Normalized surface is not continuous Latin. Tokens look like OCR debris (damaged type, header/catchword leakage, or misread Greek/Latin). No continuous clause is reconstructible without inventing wording; left untranslated pending re-acquisition.
- 13 ↩Source reads 'OnarroNISs', which looks corrupt (likely OCR). Translated as Orationis ('of prayer'), the most plausible reading given the chapter on daily prayers and the following sentences on prayer and faith.
- 14 ↩Source 'Zheophylact' is almost certainly a misreading of Theophylact (Theophylactus), the usual patristic/scholastic attribution form.
- 15 ↩Printed section ends mid-clause; et continues into the next section (preparationem meam supple).
- 16 ↩Source surface 'CnEDOo' is almost certainly a corrupt reading of 'Credo' (I believe), especially given the surrounding Confessio Fidei and the next clause 'meam,' which completes the familiar petition.
- 17 ↩Orphaned possessive completing 'incredulitatem meam' from the previous sentence; left as a separate rendering to preserve the supplied sentence split.
- 18 ↩Latin reads 'Creatorem col et terra.' Most plausible intended reading is 'Creatorem caeli/coeli et terrae' (Creator of heaven and earth), a standard creedal title; 'col' appears truncated/corrupt for caeli/coeli, and 'terra' lacks the expected genitive ending.
- 19 ↩Latin sacramentum here echoes 1 Tim 3:16 (Vulg. magnum ... pietatis sacramentum), where English tradition usually has 'mystery of godliness,' not Eucharistic 'Sacrament.' Rendered as mystery to preserve the creedal/incarnational sense; 'godliness' for pietatis.
- 20 ↩Fragment continuing from previous pro: pro nobis hominibus et salute nostra = 'for us human beings and for our salvation.' salus rendered as salvation (soteriological), not mere health.
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