Preces Quotidianae
Identity as Servant and Son
The speaker acknowledges being a servant and a prodigal son, yet clings to the Father's love purchased by Christ's blood.
Ps. 116. 16. Your servant, the son of Your handmaid. Matt.1 17. 27. A servant, a squanderer—yet still a servant. Your son—that is, bought at the price of Your Son's Blood so that I might receive adoption. Although I've lost a son's free birthright, You haven't lost a Father's love.23
Prodigal Son and Daniel's Plea
The speaker identifies as a prodigal son and echoes Daniel's prayer for mercy, invoking God's name over him.
Luke. 15. 17.✦ Even if a worthless, prodigal son—still a son.✦ Daniel. 9. 19.✦ Your name has been called over me.4
Called by Christ's Name
The speaker affirms that God is not ashamed to be called our God, and that Christians are named from Christ, pleading for mercy on that basis.
Heb. 11. 16.✦ You are not ashamed to be called our God.✦5 Christians.6 We are—for we have been bought by Your Christ; from Him we take our name.✦✦ Spare Your work; spare Your name; spare the price of Your blood,7
A Plea for Spare Mercy
A brief, stark plea that God will not spare us, implying a need for judgment or discipline.
You won't spare us.8
Confession of Sin and Human Frailty
The speaker confesses sin, citing that God does not hear sinners, yet pleads for remembrance of human frailty.
2. But I am a sinner. John 9. 80. And God does not hear sinners: Psalm✦ 89. Yet remember, I pray, what my substance is; 88.✦9 99.
Remember We Are Dust
The speaker implores God to remember that we are flesh, wind, and dust, formed from the earth.
Remember that we are flesh, and that we are a wind that passes and does not return.✦10 cin. 14. Acknowledge our frame, from which we were formed; remember that we are only✦11 We are dust.✦
Read the original Latin
Psal. cxvi. 16. Servus "Tuus, filius ancillee Tue, Matt. xvii. 27. — Servus, dissipator, at servus. : Filius Tuus, nempe pretium Sanguinis Filu Tui, ut adoptionem reciperem, Etsi ego amisi ingenuitatem fili, at Tu non pietatem Patris.
Luc. xv. 17. Etsi nequam, prodigus filius, at filius tamen. Dan. ix. 19. Nomen Tuum invocatum est super me.
Heb. xi. 16. Τὰ non es confusus appellari Deus noster. Christiani. sumus, Empti enim Christo Tuo, Ab eo denominamur. Parce operi Tuo, Parce nomini Tuo, Parce pretio sanguinis ΤᾺ],
81 non parces nobis.
2. Sed peccator sum, Jo. ix. 80. Et peccatores non audit Deus: Psal. lxxxix. Memorare, quaeso, tamen, quie mea substantia ; Ixviu. 99.
— Recordare, quod caro, et quod ventus qui transit, nec revertitur. cin. 14. Agnosce figmentum nostrum, ex quo conflati sumus; Recordare quod tantum
pulvis sumus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.15.17 — But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired workers have bread enough to spare, and here I am perishing of hunger!'
- ↩Luke.15.17 — But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired workers have bread enough to spare, and here I am perishing of hunger!'
- ↩Dan.9.19 — O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention and do! Do not delay — for your own sake, O my God, because your name is called over your city and your people.
- ↩Heb.11.16 — But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
- ↩Heb.11.16 — But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
- ↩1Cor.6.20 — For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
- ↩Acts.11.26 — And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it happened that for a whole year they gathered with the church and taught a considerable crowd, and that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
- ↩John.9.31 — We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
- ↩Ps.89.48 — Remember, what is this life? For what vanity You have created all the children of man!
- ↩Ps.78.39;Job.7.7 — He remembered that they were flesh, a passing wind that does not return. Job.7.7 — Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes will never again see good.
- ↩Ps.103.14 — For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
- ↩Ps.103.14;Ps.103.14;Gen.3.19 — For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. Ps.103.14 — For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. Gen.3.19 — By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Notes
- 1 ↩Normalized corrupt surfaces ancillee/Tue and the stray quote before Tuus to ancillae Tuae (Ps 116:16 / Vulg. 115:16 phrasing). Matt. is left as the start of the following Gospel citation.
- 2 ↩Read Filu Tui as Filii Tui and fili as filii. The second clause is elliptical: at Tu non pietatem Patris implies at Tu non [amisisti] pietatem Patris, parallel to ego amisi.
- 3 ↩pretium Sanguinis Filii Tui is taken as the redemptive purchase-price paid by the Son's Blood by which the speaker is God's child, not as if the speaker himself were that price.
- 4 ↩Biblical idiom nomen invocatum est super: God's Name named/called upon a person as belonging to Him; rendered 'called over me' to keep the covenantal force without archaism.
- 5 ↩Leading Greek characters 'Τὰ' in the source look like OCR/encoding noise before the Latin; translation follows the Latin 'non es confusus appellari Deus noster.'
- 6 ↩Tokenizer splits 'Christiani sumus' across s5–s6; this sentence is only the predicate noun 'Christiani.'
- 7 ↩Trailing source text 'ΤᾺ],' looks corrupt (likely OCR/encoding damage). Parallel structure with 'operi Tuo' / 'nomini Tuo' strongly supports an intended 'sanguinis Tui' ('Your blood'); the following section continues the petition.
- 8 ↩Leading '81' is treated as a printed numeral/marker, not spoken petition wording; neighboring sections isolate similar citation/item numbers as separate fragments.
- 9 ↩Normalized 'quie' to 'quae' and 'Ixviu' to psalm number 88 (lxxxviii), matching the common Psalm verse Memorare quae mea sit substantia.
- 10 ↩Elliptical Latin (quod caro / quod ventus) supplied with 'we are' from the parallel prayer voice in this section and the following 'sumus' clauses.
- 11 ↩Section break cuts the clause mid-thought; neighboring next section continues with 'pulvis sumus' ('we are dust').
Preces Privatae (Private Devotions) companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere