Preces Quotidianae
God's Call to Repentance
The Lord declares His desire for the sinner's repentance rather than death, calling Israel to turn from their wicked ways.
I do not want the death of the sinner, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.✦1 Turn, turn from your worst ways — and why will you die, house of Israel?✦2 Ezekiel 33 11
A Plea for Conversion and Confession
The prayer responds to God's call by asking for conversion and confessing sin, drawing from Lamentations and Daniel.
Turn us to you, Lord, and we will be turned.✦ Turn us from all our iniquities, and do not let them be our ruin. I have sinned; I have committed iniquity; I have acted wickedly and turned away; and I have turned aside from your commandments and judgments.
Supplication for Mercy
Continuing the Daniel 9 prayer, the supplicant acknowledges God's justice and their own shame, and urgently pleads for God to hear, forgive, and act for His own sake.
To you, Lord, belongs justice; but to me belongs shame of face, as it is today, under the contempt of us by which you have despised us. Lord, shame of face belongs to us and to our rulers, for we have sinned against you. Lord, in all things, justice is yours; according to all your justice, I beg you, turn away your anger and fury, and show your face upon your servant.3 Incline your ear, my God, and hear; open your eyes, and see my desolation.4 Hear, Lord; be merciful, Lord; listen, Lord; listen, Lord; and act—act, and do not delay.5 For your own sake, Lord, Lord my God,
Read the original Latin
Nolo mortem peccatoris, Quantum ut revertatur impius a via sua et vivat. Convertimini, convertiminl a viis vestris pessimis, et quare moriemini, Domus Israel? | Ezech. xxxiii. 11.] Converte nos, Domine, ad te, et convertemur. Converte nos ab omnibus iniquitatibus nostris, et ne sint nobis in ruinam. Peccavi, iniquitatem feci, impie egi et recessi, et declinavi a mandatis tuis ac judiciis.
Tibi, Domine, justitia, Mihi autem confusio faciei, sicut est hodie, in contemptione nostri, qua nos contempsisti. Domine, nobis confusio faciei, et principibus nostris, qui peccavimus tibi. Domine in omnibus justitia tua, in omnem justitiam tuam, Avertatur, obsecro, ira tua, et furor tuus, et ostende faciem tuam super servum tuum. ( Inchna, Deus meus, aurem tuam, et audi, aperi oculos tuos, et vide desolationem meam. Exaudi, Domine, placare, Domine, attende, Domine, attende, Domine, et fac, fac, et ne moreris,
propter temetipsum Domine, Domine Deus meus,
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
- ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
- ↩Lam.5.21 — Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old.
Notes
- 1 ↩"Quantum ut" is rendered as preference/contrast ("so much as that" / "rather that"), matching the biblical sense of not desiring the sinner's death but his turning and life; the more common Vulgate wording is "sed ut".
- 2 ↩Source reading "convertiminl" is treated as a typo/corruption of "convertimini" (parallel to the preceding "Convertimini").
- 3 ↩Latin joins two adjacent justice phrases (in omnibus justitia tua / in omnem justitiam tuam); rendered as affirmation plus petition-ground without inventing extra content.
- 4 ↩Source reading 'Inchna' is treated as a corruption of 'Inclina' (incline); opening parenthesis left as a print artifact and not voiced.
- 5 ↩placare rendered as 'be merciful' for natural modern prayer; more narrowly it is 'be propitiated / be appeased'.
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