Preces Quotidianae

Confession of Human Frailty

The prayer opens with a confession that no one is pure before God, not even angels, and that if God marks iniquities no one can stand.

Job. 25. 3. Not even a one-day-old infant, nor the stars themselves, are pure in Your sight; and among Your angels You have marked folly.^✦^✦¹ Psalm. 130. 39.² If You should choose to mark iniquities, no one will stand; if You should enter into judgment, no one will leave it justified.^✦^✦³

Pleading for the Great Name

The prayer pleads for God's mercy for the sake of His great name and the blood of His Son, referencing Joshua 7:9 and Galatians 2:21.

Joshua^✦ 7 9^✦ And what will be done for that great Name of Yours?^✦ What of those riches of Your mercy? Galatians^✦⁴ n.⁵ 21^✦ What of the blood of Your Son?^✦⁶

Mercy Through the Beloved

The prayer affirms that God has shut all under sin to have mercy on all, and has made sinners beloved in Christ, opening the door of hope.

. Will he die for nothing?^✦ Surely the world will perish, unless You multiply Your mercy toward us.⁷ Far be it! Truly, You have shut all under sin, so that You might have mercy on all.^✦ —those who long to acknowledge their sins, all who have earned misery from them, who long to return to You with their whole heart.^✦⁸ You have made all these beloved in Your Beloved—not only the least of sinners, Manasseh under the old covenant, but Paul under the new—so that in them You might show the excellence of Your compassion, and open the door of hope^✦^✦^✦⁹

Spare Me for Grace

The prayer concludes with a plea for grace, addressing God as the chief of sinners and asking to be spared for the sake of grace.

To the chief of sinners.^✦¹⁰ 5. So spare me, for the sake of grace.^✦¹¹ who longs to return.¹²

Read the original Latin

Job. xxv. 3. Nee infans unius diei, nec stelle ipse mund:e sunt in conspectu Tuo, et in angelis Tuis respexisti insipientiam. Psal. cxxx. 39. S1 miquitates observare volueris, nemo sustinebit ; Si in judicium intrare, nemo inde abscedet justificatus.

Jos. vii. 9. Et quid fiet Nomini Tuo illi magno ? Quid divitiis illis misericordiz "Tu, Gal. n. 21. Quid sangumi Fili Tui?

. An gratis morietur ? Certe peribit scculum, nisi multiplicaveris misericordiam erga nos. Absit. Certe conclusisti omnes sub peccato, Ut omnium misereri posses. : Qui agnoscere peccata sua, Omnium Qui miseriam inde promeruerunt, Qui redire ad Te toto corde cupiunt. Hos omnes dilectos fecisti in Dilecto Tuo; Nee peccatores pusillos, Manassem in veteri, Sed Paulum in novo, Ut in illis ostenderes excellentiam miserationis "Tu: ; ut aperires portam spei

Peccatorum primis.

5. Quare parce mihi in gratiam

redire cupienti.

Scripture echoes

↩Job.25.5 — Behold, even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight—
↩Job.4.18 — Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and in his angels he finds fault.
↩Ps.130.3 — If you kept watch over iniquities, O LORD, who could stand?
↩Ps.143.2;Job.9.2 — And do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. Job.9.2 — Truly I know that it is so; but how can a mortal be righteous before God?
↩Josh.7.9 — And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
↩Josh.7.9 — And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
↩Josh.7.9 — And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
↩Eph.2.4;Rom.2.4;Rom.9.23 — But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, Rom.2.4 — Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Rom.9.23 — and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory
↩Gal.2.21 — I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
↩Josh.7.9 — And the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
↩Gal.2.21 — I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
↩Rom.11.32;Gal.3.22 — For God has consigned all to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on all. Gal.3.22 — But the Scripture has locked up everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
↩Joel.2.12 — Yet even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
↩1Tim.1.15-1Tim.1.16 — The saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1Tim.1.16 — But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display all his patience, as a pattern for those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
↩Eph.1.6 — to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
↩Hos.2.15 — And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense, and she put on her ring and her jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, declares the LORD.
↩1Tim.1.15 — The saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
↩Job.7.16 — I loathe my life; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

Notes

1 ↩Source is corrupt: Nee→Nec; stelle→stellae; ipse→ipsae; mund:e→mundae. Rendered as: Nec infans unius diei, nec stellae ipsae mundae sunt in conspectu Tuo, et in angelis Tuis respexisti insipientiam.
2 ↩Verse number 39 is implausible for Psalm 130/129; the following Latin matches Psalm 130:3 (Heb.) / 129:3 (Vulg.). Possibly OCR corruption of 3.
3 ↩Source is corrupt: S1 miquitates→Si iniquitates. Second clause is elliptical (si in judicium [volueris] intrare).
4 ↩Normalized corrupt misericordiz "Tu to misericordiae Tuae ("those riches of Your mercy"). Gal. is retained as the following biblical book cue.
5 ↩Chapter numeral is unreadable as printed (n.). In this citation pattern it is likely a garbled Roman numeral, possibly ii.
6 ↩Normalized sangumi to sanguini (dative singular of sanguis).
7 ↩Normalized reading takes scculum as saeculum (‘world’/‘age’).
8 ↩agnoscere is infinitive and the clause is elliptical; cupiunt is taken as governing both agnoscere and redire. Omnium may resume omnium from the previous sentence.
9 ↩Nee read as Nec; miserationis "Tu: treated as miserationis Tuae; sentence appears truncated before the next section (Peccatorum primis).
10 ↩Syntactically completes the previous section’s purpose clause (ut aperires portam spei…): dative primis with genitive peccatorum, ‘to the first/chief of sinners.’
11 ↩in gratiam may mean either 'for the sake of grace/favor' or 'into grace' (especially if the following section's redire cupienti continues the construction as 'return into grace'). Rendering keeps the petition clear without importing the next section's words.
12 ↩Fragment completing the preceding petition (parce mihi …). With the prior in gratiam, the natural construction is in gratiam redire cupienti: spare me who long to return into grace/favor. This section alone carries only redire cupienti.

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