In Christianliturgical worship,Preces (Latin for 'prayers';/ˈpriːsiːz/PREE-seez), also known inAnglican prayer asthe Suffrages orResponses,[1] describe a series[2] of short petitions said or sung asversicles andresponses by theofficiant andcongregation respectively. Versicle-and-response is one of the oldest forms of prayer inChristianity, with its roots in Hebrew prayer during the time of theTemple in Jerusalem.[3] In many prayer books the versicles and responses comprising thePreces are denoted by specialglyphs:[4]
℣℟InAnglican liturgy (andLutherans, in their Matins services) the Preces or Responses refer to the opening and closing versicles and responses ofMorning Prayer andEvening Prayer in theBook of Common Prayer and other more modern service books. The two prayer services each begin with the following.
The closing preces, also known as the Lesser Litany, occur later in the service, after theApostles' Creed. Originally, the Creed was placed after the Lord's Prayer, following pre-Reformation use,[5] and as in the Roman Rite (see below).
These derive from the preces of the pre-Reformation liturgy, which generally quote verses of thepsalms. In particular, the closing preces of the two daily offices of the Book of Common Prayer were adapted byThomas Cranmer mainly from the ferial preces ofLauds,Prime andVespers.[7] The preces in the other occasional offices are similarly mostly derived from their pre-Reformation counterparts in theSarum Use.
There are many musical settings of the text, usually referred to as the Responses, ranging from largelyhomophonic settings such as those byWilliam Byrd andThomas Morley, to more elaborate arrangements that may even requireorgan accompaniment. Other common choral settings of the Responses include those byThomas Tomkins,William Smith,Richard Ayleward,Bernard Rose andHumphrey Clucas.
In the Roman Rite, the termpreces is not applied in a specific sense to the versicles and responses of the different liturgical hours, on which those used in the Anglican services are based. In theRoman RiteLiturgy of the Hours, the wordpreces is freely used in theLatin text with its generic meaning of "prayers", but it has a specialized meaning in reference to the prayers said at Morning and Evening Prayer after theBenedictus orMagnificat and followed by theLord's Prayer and the concluding prayer or collect. They vary with the seasons (Advent,Christmastide,Lent,Eastertide, andOrdinary Time), being repeated generally only at four-week intervals, and with the celebration of saints. In the most widely used English translation of the Liturgy of the Hours, they are referred to as Intercessions, and are very similar to theGeneral Intercessions found within the confines of theMass.
An example is that of Morning Prayer on Thursday of Week 2 inOrdinary Time:
In iterations of theRoman Breviary before 1962, however, thepreces proper referred to a series of versicles and responses which were said either standing or kneeling, depending on the day or liturgical season in which the prayers were to be uttered. There were two forms, the Dominical or abridged preces, and the Ferial or unabridged preces. These were said, as in theAnglican Communion, at both morning (Prime) and Evening (Vespers) Prayer. Here follows the Dominical preces from the common Prime office, from an English translation of the pre-1962Breviary.[8]
After which would follow the General Confession of sins.
This form of prayer has ceased to be used in the wider Roman Rite, except amongstTraditional Catholic groups.
In theMozarabic Rite thePreces orPreca are chants of penitential character used only inLent. They are in the form of alitany, with a short response (usuallymiserere nobis - have mercy on us) to each invocation
In the Catholicprelature ofOpus Dei, thePreces are a special set of prayers said by each member every day.[9] It is also called "Prayers of the Work."
The prayer was originally composed byJosemaría Escrivá by December 1930. It was the first common activity of the members of Opus Dei in history. Escrivá composed the prayer by putting together phrases that he took from established liturgical prayers, and from the psalms in accordance with what he preached inThe Way86, about "using the psalms and prayers from the missal" for prayer. The prayers have undergone several changes through time.[10]
The Preces, which is called "the universal prayer of the Work", is described by one journalist as including "blessing of everyone from the Pope to Virgin Mary to the prelate of Opus Dei".[11]John L. Allen describes its contents as follows: "invocations to the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the Guardian Angels, and Saint Josemaría, then prayers for the Holy Father, the bishop of the diocese, unity among all those working to spread the gospel, the prelate of Opus Dei and the other members of the Work, and invocations to Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Peter, Paul, and John (the Patrons of Opus Dei)".[12]
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