When it is said
The Book of Cerne heads it as a morning prayer, to say on rising.
In Alcuin’s book on the use of the psalms it stands among prayers to say in bed before sleep, titled “Prayer of St Jerome for the keeping of the following day”.
Where it comes from
Author doubtful
Who wrote it?
The Book of Cerne, Alcuin’s book on the psalms and the prayer books of Charles the Bald and of Fleury all credit it to St Jerome. But one old copy heads it only “morning prayer”, and another gives it no title at all. So the credit to Jerome cannot be proved.
A. B. Kuypers, The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop (1902), notes
The Book of Cerne
The Book of Cerne is a small prayer book written in Mercia, in the English Midlands. This prayer is the sixth in it, headed “Morning prayer of St Jerome the priest”. Its copy is shorter in places than Alcuin’s, which the plain wording follows.
A. B. Kuypers, The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop (1902)
The Scripture in it
I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall.
My eyes are always on the LORD, for He will free my feet from the mesh.
I lift up my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven.
May my prayer be set before You like incense; my uplifted hands, like the evening offering.
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Latin
Mecum esto, Domine Sabaoth;
mane cum surrexero, intende ad me, et guberna omnes actus meos, et verba mea, et cogitationes meas vel opera mea, ut totum diem transigam in tua voluntate.
Da mihi, Domine, timorem tuum, cordis compunctionem, mentis humilitatem, conscientiæ puritatem, ut terram despiciam, cœlum suspiciam, peccata oderim, et justitiam diligam.
Abscinde a me, Domine, gulæ appetitum, concupiscentiam fornicationis, amorem pecuniæ, pestem iracundiæ, tristitiam sæculi, mentis accidiam, vanam lætitiam, tyrannidem superbiæ.
Planta in me, Domine, virtutem abstinentiæ, et continentiam carnis, et castitatem mentis, voluntariam [Column 491, top of the left-hand column] paupertatem, veram patientiam, lætitiam spiritualem, animi stabilitatem, cordis contritionem, humilitatem non fictam, fraternam charitatem.
Custodi os meum ne loquar vana, ne fabuler sæcularia, ne detraham absentibus, ne maledicam præsentibus;
ne respondeam maledictum pro maledicto;
sed e contrario benedicam Dominum in omni tempore, semper laus ejus in ore meo.
Custodi oculos meos, ne videant mulierem ad concupiscendam eam, ne desiderem rem proximi, nec delicias hujus sæculi;
sed dicam cum spiritu David:
Illumina oculos meos, ne unquam obdormiam in morte, ne quando dicat inimicus meus:
Prævalui adversus eum.
Et dicam:
Oculi mei semper ad Dominum, et reliqua.
Et iterum dicam:
Ad te levavi oculos meos, qui habitas in cœlis.
Custodi aures meas, ne audiant linguam detrahentem, nec audiant mendacium, nec verbum otiosum:
sed semper apertæ sint quotidie ad audiendum verbum Dei.
Custodi pedes meos, ne circumeant domum otiosi, sed stent in oratione Dei.
Custodi manus meas, ne porrigantur sæpe ad accipienda munera, sed potius eleventur in precibus Domini mundæ et puræ, sine ira et disceptatione, quo possim dicere illum propheticum sermonem:
Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo.
Elevatio manuum mearum sacrificium vespertinum.
Fiat.
Amen.
From Alcuin’s copy, in Migne’s Patrologia Latina 101 (Paris, 1863), read from the page images.