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Chapter 35PrecesPriv.1.35

Preces Quotidianae

Confession and Plea for Mercy

The soul acknowledges its life in God's light, confesses sin, and pleads for forgiveness and salvation.

My life is in the light of your face.1 But forgive your servant's wrongdoing, according to your great mercy, as you have been gracious to him from infancy until now.2 I've sinned.✦ What am I to do for you, O guardian of humanity?✦ Why have you set me against yourself, and I have become a burden to myself?✦ Give my iniquity over to forgetfulness, and cleanse my sin.✦ Save my soul, lest it come to ruin,

Cries for Mercy from Scripture

Drawing on Job and the Gospels, the soul appeals to God's mercy, acknowledging that God has found a way to show mercy, and cries out like Bartimaeus and the Canaanite woman.

For you have found that by which you may show mercy.✦ Have mercy on me, Son of David. Lord, help me.

Humility and Debt Forgiveness

The soul humbly acknowledges its unworthiness, like a dog eating crumbs, and begs for forgiveness of every debt, citing the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Yes, Lord—for even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.✦3 Have patience with me, Lord—or rather: I have nothing with which to repay you; I will confess to you.4 Forgive me every debt, I ask you. Matthew 18 25–27.5

Lament and Petition for Light

The soul cries out in lament, asking how long God will forget and hide his face, and concludes with a plea for God to look upon and enlighten the eyes.

1.6 How long, Lord, will you forget me forever?✦ How long will you turn your face away from me?✦ 2. How long must I take counsel in my soul, and keep sorrow in my heart, day and night?✦7 How long will my enemy be exalted over me?✦ Vers.8 2. 3. Look upon me and hear me, Lord, my God, Enlighten my eyes, so that I may never9

Read the original Latin

seeculum meum in illuminatione vultus tui. Sed dimitte iniquitatem servo tuo, secundum magnitudinem misericordiw tus, sicut propitius ei fuisti ab infantia, ad usque nunc. Peccavi. Quid faciam tibi, o custos hominum ? Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, Et factus sum mihimetipsi gravis ? Des iniquitatem meam oblivioni, Et purges peccatum meum. Salvam fac animam meam, ne veniat in interitum,

Invenisti enim in quo propitiatus sis.

Miserere mei, fili David. Domine, adjuva me.

Etiam, Domine, nam et catelli edunt de micis quz» cadunt de mensa Dominorum suorum. Patientiam habe in me, Domine, Quin potius, Non habeo unde reddam ; Confitebor tibi. Omne debitum dimitte mihi, rogo te. Matt. xviii. 25—97.

l. Usquequo, Domine, oblivisceris me in finem ? Usquequo avertis faciem tuam a me? 2. Quamdiu ponam consila in anima mea, Dolorem in corde meo, per diem et noctem ? Usquequo exaltabitur inimicus meus super me? Vers. 2.

3. Respice, et exaudi me, Domine, Deus meus,

Illumina oculos meos, ne unquam

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Job.7.20 — If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself?" "If I have sinned" better reflects the rhetorical, concessive force in context and avoids making Job sound more confessionally settled than the chapter allows.
  2. ↩Job.7.20 — If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself?" "If I have sinned" better reflects the rhetorical, concessive force in context and avoids making Job sound more confessionally settled than the chapter allows.
  3. ↩Job.7.20 — If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to myself?" "If I have sinned" better reflects the rhetorical, concessive force in context and avoids making Job sound more confessionally settled than the chapter allows.
  4. ↩Job.7.21 — And why do you not forgive my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me, but I will be no more.
  5. ↩Job.33.24 — And He is gracious to him, and He said, 'Redeem him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom.'
  6. ↩Matt.15.22 — And behold, a Canaanite woman from those regions came out and cried out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely tormented by a demon."
  7. ↩Ps.13.1 — To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
  8. ↩Ps.13.1 — To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
  9. ↩Ps.13.2 — How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
  10. ↩Ps.13.2 — How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Normalized corrupt surface 'seeculum' as 'saeculum' (life/lifetime/age); the clause has no finite verb and may be elliptical after the preceding petition.
  2. 2 ↩Normalized corrupt 'misericordiw tus' as 'misericordiae tuae' (of your mercy).
  3. 3 ↩Source 'quz»' is treated as 'quae' (which); OCR garble in the relative clause.
  4. 4 ↩'Confitebor tibi' can mean either confession/acknowledgment or psalmic praise; debt-forgiveness context favors confession.
  5. 5 ↩Source reads '25—97.'; rendered as the plausible Matt 18:25–27 range matching the debt-forgiveness petitions above. Could be a different corrupt reading.
  6. 6 ↩Source reads 'l.'; treated as verse number '1.' (common OCR confusion of 1/l), matching the following Ps 12 (Heb. 13) incipit and the numbered markers '2.' later in the section.
  7. 7 ↩Source 'consila' read as 'consilia' (counsels/plans), the standard psalm reading; 'per diem et noctem' is translated as given (standard Vulgate has only 'per diem').
  8. 8 ↩Liturgical abbreviation 'Vers.' kept as 'Vers.' (versicle/verse cue); not expanded, since the source is a structural label, not prose.
  9. 9 ↩Clause is incomplete in this printed section; it continues in the next section (obdormiam in morte).

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