Preces Quotidianae
Thanksgiving for Nature's Gifts
The prayer begins by giving thanks for bodily needs, all past and present benefits, and any kindnesses offered, enumerating specific temporal blessings.
Body; the necessaries of life. Thanks concerning the gifts of nature, of the world.1 Concerning all the benefits I have received—those of old, by which things went well for me, and those of now.2 Concerning any kindness I may ever have given.3 Health, a good name, a contented mind, safety, freedom, rest.
For Sustained Life
The prayer recalls God's preservation of life from infancy through old age, citing scriptural passages that affirm God's steadfast care and protection.
For you have not cut off my life like a weaver while I was still beginning the web, nor have you taken me away from morning until evening.4 He has granted me life and breath up to this moment—from childhood and youth, and until now, even to old age and advanced age.5 Ps.6 71.7 65.✦8 You set my soul toward life, and you will not let my foot be shaken.9 Ps. 66. 8.
Deliverance from Evil
The prayer gives thanks for rescue from dangers, diseases, poverty, public shame, and the power of personal sin.
You who have rescued me from dangers, diseases, poverty, slavery, public shame, and evil assaults.10 You who have not dashed me11 into the power of my iniquity,12
Read the original Latin
Corpore, Necessarüs ad vitam, Gratiz, circa dona Natur:, Sweculi. Circa omnia quz accepi beneficia, olim, quibus mihi bene successit Í nunc. Circa siquod beneficium dederim unquam. Sanitas, Bona fama, Mens contenta, Incolumitas, Libertas, Quies. Quoniam non preescidisti, sicut textor, vitam meam, dum adhuc ordirer, Nec de mane usque ad vesperam abstulisti me. Concessit mihi vitam et spiritum, usque ad hoc momentum, A pueritia, et juventute, et huc usque, usque ad senectam et senium. Psa/. lxxi.
l5. Ponas animam meam ad vitam, et non dabis in commotionem pedem meum. Psa/. lxvi. 8. Qui eripuisti me ex periculis, morbis, egestate, servitute, pudore publico, ineursibus malis. Qui non allisisti me
in manu iniquitatis mese,
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.66.9 — who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip
Notes
- 1 ↩Normalized from heavily OCR-damaged Latin: Necessarüs→Necessariis/Necessaria; Gratiz→Gratiae; Natur:→Naturae; Sweculi→Saeculi. Read as rubric headings for thanksgiving categories.
- 2 ↩Read quz as quae; Í as et. Phrase olim…et nunc taken as past and present benefits.
- 3 ↩siquod = si quod, 'if any / whatever'; beneficium rendered as kindness/benefit given by the speaker.
- 4 ↩preescidisti read as praecidisti ('you cut off/cut short').
- 5 ↩Latin is third-person Concessit (He has granted), not second-person address; neighboring sentences are second person. Translated as printed.
- 6 ↩Abbreviated citation label Psa/. preserved as Ps.; pairs with following numeral.
- 7 ↩Roman numeral lxxi. rendered as 71. May be Hebrew Psalm 71 or a Vulgate/Hebrew numbering mismatch relative to senectam et senium (often Vulg. Ps 70).
- 8 ↩Source reads 'l5.'; most plausible intended form is 'lxv.' (Psalm 65), matching the following verse echo and the surrounding citation pattern (Psa/. + Roman numeral).
- 9 ↩Latin mixes moods (subjunctive 'Ponas' with future 'dabis') in second-person address; rendered as confident petition to God rather than third-person narrative psalm form.
- 10 ↩Source 'ineursibus' read as 'incursibus' (assaults/onsets); clear OCR/print corruption.
- 11 ↩Sentence is incomplete in this section; it continues in the next section ('in manu iniquitatis meae'). Rendering preserves the fragment without finishing the clause.
- 12 ↩Latin surface 'mese' is almost certainly a printing/OCR error for 'meae' (genitive with iniquitatis); translated as 'my'.
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