Preces Quotidianae
Evening Confession and Plea for Mercy
An evening confession acknowledging daily sin and pleading for God's mercy and grace.
Prov. 24. 16. Seven times a day the righteous stumbles; but we wretched sinners do so seventy times seven.✦✦1 Today too has had its share, and deserved it. But we return to You, and all our bones say, 'We repent.' Do not let the sun go down on Your wrath.✦✦23 Lord, every good work of ours is something You have worked in us.✦ Whatever we have done rightly, look on it with favor. Lord, our sin and our ruin are from ourselves.
Petition for Forgiveness and Blessing
A petition for forgiveness of sins and a blessing of the Lord.
Mercifully forgive whatever we have done wrong; look kindly on the good; pardon the evil.4 Blessed are You, Lord,
Trustful Rest
A prayer acknowledging God as the giver of peaceful sleep to His beloved.
You give sleep to those You love, and grant those who fear You sleep with confident trust.
Exclamation of Sweetness
A brief exclamation of sweetness, possibly a doxological fragment.
of sweetness,5
Prayer for Night Protection
A prayer for God's protection through the night, deliverance from fear, and assurance of His watchful care.
Enlighten our eyes, so that we don't fall asleep in death.✦ Deliver us from the terror of the night and from the thing that stalks in the dark.✦6 Look: the One who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.✦7 May the Lord keep us from all evil; may he also keep✦8
Concluding Petition for Soul's Keeping
A concluding petition for the Lord to keep our souls.
May the Lord protect our souls.9
Read the original Latin
Pro. xxiv. 16. Septies in die impingit justus, nos vero (miseri peccatores) septuaginta septies. Hodie quoque suum habuit, et suum merebi Sed revertimur ad Te, et omnia ossa nostra dicunt, Peenitet, Nec occidat sol super iram Tuam. : Domine, universa opera nostra bona Tu operatus es in nobis. Quicquid recte egimus, Propitius respice. Domine, peccatum et perditio nostra ex nobis sunt.
Quiequid deliquimus, Clementer ignosce, Respice bonum, Malum condona. Benedictus es Tu, Domine,
Qui das dilectis Tuis somnum et timentibus Te dormire fiducialiter.
suavitatis,
Illumina oculos nostros, ne obdormiremus in morte. Libera nos a terrore nocturno, a negotio perambulante in tenebris. Ecce non dormitabit neque dormuiet, Qui custodit Israel. Dominus custodiat nos ab omni malo, etiam custodiat
animas nostras Dominus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Prov.24.16 — For the righteous person falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble into calamity.
- ↩Matt.18.21-Matt.18.22 — Then Peter came to him and said, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Matt.18.22 — Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.'
- ↩Ps.35.10;Ps.36.10 — All my bones shall say, 'LORD, who is like You, delivering the poor from the one too strong for him—the poor and the needy from the one who robs him?' Ps.36.10 — For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
- ↩Eph.4.26 — Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
- ↩Isa.26.12 — LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed all our works you have done for us.
- ↩Ps.13.4;Ps.14.4 — Look at me, answer me, O LORD my God; give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Ps.14.4 — Have they no knowledge, all the workers of iniquity, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD?
- ↩Ps.91.5-Ps.91.6;Ps.91.5-Ps.91.6 — You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, Ps.91.6 — Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that ravages at midday. Ps.91.5 — You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, Ps.91.6 — Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that ravages at midday.
- ↩Ps.121.4;Ps.121.4 — Behold, the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Ps.121.4 — Behold, the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
- ↩Ps.121.7;Ps.121.7 — The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your soul. Ps.121.7 — The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your soul.
Notes
- 1 ↩impingit is rendered 'stumbles' (not 'falls') to keep the supplied verb; the finite verb is understood again with the elliptical second clause.
- 2 ↩Reading merebi as meruit ('has deserved/earned') by the parallel suum habuit / suum meruit; the printed form looks corrupt.
- 3 ↩Peenitet taken as Paenitet / Pœnitet ('We repent' / 'It grieves us'), almost certainly a spelling/OCR fault.
- 4 ↩Source reads Quiequid; translated as Quicquid (whatever), matching the previous section's Quicquid recte egimus.
- 5 ↩Supplied Latin is only the genitive fragment suavitatis with a trailing comma; no governing noun or full clause is present in this section.
- 6 ↩Latin negotio perambulante is the Vulgate psalm phrase often English-rendered as pestilence that stalks in darkness; translation follows the Latin surface (affair/thing walking about) rather than the Hebrew sense.
- 7 ↩Source reads dormuiet; translated as dormiet (will sleep), the expected Vulgate form in this psalm verse.
- 8 ↩Sentence is section-truncated mid-clause; neighboring next section continues animas nostras Dominus.
- 9 ↩Fragment continues the previous clause (etiam custodiat…); custodiat is supplied from PrecesPriv.1.290.5.s4 for readable sense.
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