When it is said
In the book it follows five psalms of thanks for a time of trouble that has passed, and a set of verses said after the Lord’s Prayer.
Before confession, read it slowly and stop at each line that is true of you.
Because it looks back over a whole life since baptism, it suits a first confession or one after a long time away.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Who was Alcuin?
Alcuin was a deacon of the church of York. Charlemagne met him at Parma in AD 781 and invited him to his court as a schoolmaster. Within a few years Alcuin was the leading adviser in the kingdom of the Franks. In AD 796 he became abbot of St Martin’s at Tours, where he spent the last eight years of his life.
Gerald Ellard, “Alcuin and Some Favored Votive Masses,” Theological Studies 1 (1940)
The book it comes from
The prayer comes from a Latin book on how to use the psalms, with prayers for the needs of daily life. The book opens with a verse saying that Alcuin made it in honour of his Lord.
Alcuin, De psalmorum usu, in Migne’s Patrologia Latina 101, on archive.org
What the words mean
A version for monks
An old printing of the book made in Cologne has a different line here, one that fits monks. It speaks of promises made before the altar and of failing to obey the prior of the monastery. The text printed here speaks instead of the promises made at baptism, which every Christian has made.
The Scripture in it
You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.
Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Latin
Benedictum nomen tuum, Domine Deus patrum nostrorum:
qui cum iratus fueris misericordiam facis,
et in tempore tribulationis peccata dimittis his qui invocant nomen tuum.
Ad te, Domine, faciem meam converto, tibi omnia peccata mea confiteor.
Tu nosti omnia, antequam fiant.
Tu scis, quia post baptismum præcepta tua contempsi, et mandata tua non custodivi;
et bonum quod potui facere, per negligentiam non feci:
et malum quod non debui facere, per audaciam perpetravi.
Et per concupiscentiam multa mala feci in visu, in auditu, in gustu, in odoratu, et tactu:
in cogitatione, et in locutione, et in opere.
Et quod in sacrosancto baptismate coram angelis et sanctis tuis promisi, non custodivi, sicut debui;
nec adimplevi, sed consumpsi, et præceptis tuis non obedivi, sicut debui:
sed superbiendo, irascendo, contemnendo, negligendo, proprias voluntates faciendo,
murmurando, detrahendo, dijudicando culpas incurri.
Deus, tu scis insipientiam meam, et delicta mea a te non sunt abscondita.
Aspice in me confitentem peccata mea coram te, et miserere mei.
Concede mihi in hoc sæculo agere veram pœnitentiam, et in futuro da mihi indulgentiam,
quia tu dignatus es dicere: Nolo mortem peccatoris, sed ut convertatur et vivat.
Effunde super me misericordiam tuam, et dimitte omnia peccata mea,
quæ conscientia mea metuit, et adjice quod oratio non præsumit.
Et da mihi perseverantiam in bonis operibus,
ut te miserante pervenire merear ad gloriam regni tui,
Salvator mundi, qui vivis et regnas in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.