Preces Quotidianae
A Humble Plea for Mercy
The soul confesses its wretchedness and inability to do good, and begs God to order all things for its true benefit.
what is good for my soul.1 I am a wretched man,✦2 7.3 24.✦4 I don't know, I can't, and I don't will it as I ought. I beg You, Lord: for the sake of Your ineffable loving-kindness, look upon me in this way, and so order things according to what You know is pleasing to You.56 and especially to do me the most good.
A Catalogue of Divine Attributes
A list of God's attributes—goodness, grace, charity, kindness, gentleness, patience, mercy—each anchored by a scripture citation.
Goodness, 2 Samuel.✦7 7.8 28.9 Grace, Nehemiah.✦10 9.✦ 31.✦ Charity, Romans.11 5. 90. Kindness, love of humankind, 77/.✦12 id.13 4. Gentleness, 2 Corinthians 10:1.✦14 Patience, long-suffering, Romans.✦ 1. 4. Abundant mercy, 1 Peter.✦15 i.16 3.17 and great, Psalm h. 1. Mercies, Romans 15. 1. A multitude of mercies; a heart of mercy — Colossians 3.✦ 12. Tender mercies; many tender mercies.18 (In overlooking19
Modes of Divine Mercy
A concluding reflection on the ways God shows mercy: by overlooking faults, by seeing through them, and by not looking upon them.
by overlooking, by carefully seeing through, 4c.20 17.21 30 not looking upon,
Read the original Latin
bonum anim:e meze. Ego homo miser, om. vi. 24. nec scio, nec possum, nec, ut debeo, volo. Tu, Domine, quzeso, Pro pietate tua ineffabih mecum ita dispicias, et ita disponas, secundum quod nosti placere Tibi,
et maxime prodesse mihi.
BoNras, 2 Sam. viu. 98. Gratia, XNehem. ix. 31. Charitas, Rom. v.
90. Benignitas, Hominum dilectio, 77/. id. 4. Mansuetudo, M ᾿ 2H Corz x: 1. Patientia, Longanimitas, Rom. i. 4.
Misericordia multa, 1 Pet. i. 3.
et magna, Psal. h. 1. Miserationes, Rom. xu. 1. Multitudo miserationum, Viscera misericordie, — Coloss. ni.
12. Bona viscera, Multa bona viscera. ( In pretereundo
dissimulando, pervidendo, 4c. xvii. 30
non aspiciendo,
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.7.24 — Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
- ↩Rom.7.24 — Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
- ↩2Sam.7.28 — And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have spoken this good thing to your servant.
- ↩Neh.9.31 — But in your great mercy you did not make an end of them, and you did not forsake them; for you are a God gracious and merciful.
- ↩Neh.9.31 — But in your great mercy you did not make an end of them, and you did not forsake them; for you are a God gracious and merciful.
- ↩Neh.9.31 — But in your great mercy you did not make an end of them, and you did not forsake them; for you are a God gracious and merciful.
- ↩Titus.3.4 — But when the kindness and the love for humankind of our Savior God appeared,
- ↩2Cor.10.1 — Now I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away—
- ↩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?
- ↩1Pet.1.3 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
- ↩Col.3.12 — Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source OCR 'bonum anim:e meze' read as 'bonum animae meae', completing the previous clause 'tu scis, et potes, et vis'.
- 2 ↩Trailing 'om.' is almost certainly the start of a cut-off scripture cue, most likely 'Rom. vii. 24' (cf. Infelix ego homo), split across s2–s4.
- 3 ↩Isolated 'vi.' treated as the chapter numeral of a scripture cue, reconstructed as 'vii.' (= 7), not as free prose.
- 4 ↩Bare numeral kept as the verse number of the reconstructed citation 'Rom. vii. 24'.
- 5 ↩OCR 'quzeso' read as 'quaeso'; 'ineffabih' as 'ineffabili'.
- 6 ↩Divine 'pietas' rendered 'loving-kindness' (covenant tenderness), not human 'piety'. 'dispicias' taken from dispicio, 'look carefully upon / regard', paired with 'disponas'.
- 7 ↩Source 'BoNras' is corrupt OCR; restored as Bonitas (Goodness), matching the virtue-list pattern continued in the next section (Benignitas, Mansuetudo, Patientia).
- 8 ↩Source 'viu.' read as roman numeral vii. (7), a common OCR confusion of i/u in roman chapter numbers.
- 9 ↩Source reads '98.'; restored as '28.' as the most plausible verse for Bonitas + 2 Sam. vii (2 Samuel 7:28, the 'good thing' promised to the servant). 2→9 is a frequent OCR digit error.
- 10 ↩Source 'XNehem.' treated as Nehem. (Nehemiah) with stray OCR prefix 'X'.
- 11 ↩Charitas rendered Charity as a named theological virtue in this catalog (cf. PrecesPriv.1.49.12 Friendship, Charity); Love is the default elsewhere.
- 12 ↩Book abbreviation "77/." is almost certainly corrupt OCR; the virtue pair Benignitas + Hominum dilectio strongly suggests Titus 3:4 (Vulgate benignitas et humanitas), but the printed book token was not silently emended.
- 13 ↩"id." may be Latin idem/ibid.-style "the same," a misread roman chapter (e.g. iii.), or other citation debris; left as received.
- 14 ↩Citation block "M ᾿ 2H Corz x: 1." is severely corrupt. Most plausible intended reading is 2 Cor. 10:1 (Vulgate per mansuetudinem … Christi), but the surface form was preserved rather than silently rewritten.
- 15 ↩Misericordia multa names the divine attribute (abundant/great mercy); kept as a catalogue lemma with the scripture cue intact.
- 16 ↩Standalone 'i.' is the Roman chapter numeral in the split citation 1 Pet. i. 3 (chapter 1).
- 17 ↩Verse number completing the split citation 1 Pet. i. 3.
- 18 ↩Latin viscera is biblical for deep, inward compassion ('bowels of mercy'). Rendered as 'tender mercies' to keep the scriptural sense without archaic anatomy; bona is carried as the goodness of that mercy rather than as a separate abstract 'goods'.
- 19 ↩pretereundo read as praetereundo ('in overlooking / in passing over'). Sentence is truncated mid-parenthesis; next section continues with dissimulando, pervidendo and a ch. xvii. 30 cue.
- 20 ↩dissimulando: gerund of dissimulare — here ‘by overlooking / by pretending not to notice,’ continuing the preceding ‘In pretereundo’ (‘in passing by’). pervidendo: gerund of pervidere — ‘by thoroughly perceiving / carefully looking through.’ ‘4c.’ appears to be a structural or citation marker, not prose.
- 21 ↩Latin ‘xvii.’ is a Roman numeral section/item marker; rendered as Arabic 17 for modern readability.
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