An excellent prayer (Sir 23:1-6)
The Latin:
Dómine, pater et dominátor vitæ meæ,
ne derelínquas me in consílio eórum,
nec sinas me cádere in illis.
Quis superpónet in cogitátu meo flagélla,
et in corde meo doctrínam sapiéntiæ,
ut ignoratiónibus eórum non parcant mihi,
et non appáreant delícta eórum,
et ne adincréscant ignorántiæ meæ,
et multiplicéntur delícta mea,
et peccáta mea abúndent,
et íncidam in conspéctu adversariórum meórum,
et gáudeat super me inimícus meus ?
Dómine, pater et Deus vitæ meæ,
ne derelínquas me in cogitátu illórum.
Extolléntiam oculórum meórum ne déderis mihi,
et omne desidérium avérte a me.
Aufer a me ventris concupiscéntias,
et concúbitus concupiscéntiæ ne apprehéndant me,
et ánimæ irreverénti et infrúnitæ ne tradas me.
The English:
O LORD, father, and sovereign ruler of my life,
leave me not to their counsel:
nor suffer me to fall by them.
Who will set scourges over my thoughts,
and the discipline of wisdom over my heart,
that they spare me not in their ignorances,
and that their sins may not appear:
Lest my ignorances increase,
and my offences be multiplied,
and my sins abound,
and I fall before my adversaries,
and my enemy rejoice over me?
O Lord, father, and God of my life,
leave me not to their devices.
Give me not haughtiness of my eyes,
and turn away from me all coveting.
Take from me the greediness of the belly,
and let not the lusts of the flesh take hold of me,
and give me not over to a shameless and foolish mind.
