Preces

Preces (Latin preces, plural of prex, "prayer") are, in liturgical worship, short petitions that are said or sung as versicle and response by the officiant and respectively. This form of prayer is one of the oldest in Christianity, finding its source in both the pre-Christian Hebrew prayers of the Psalms in Temple Worship,

An example familiar to Anglicans (and Lutherans, in their Matins services) is the opening versicles and responses of the Anglican services of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the Book of Common Prayer:

This particular form has existed in all of the liturgical churches since well before the Reformation. The responses continue later in the service, after the Apostle's Creed.

There are many musical settings of the text, ranging from largely homophonic settings such as those by William Byrd and Thomas Morley, to more elaborate arrangements that may even require organ accompaniment.

In the Roman Rite, the term preces 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 the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours, the word preces is freely used in the Latin 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 the Benedictus or Magnificat and followed by the Lord's Prayer and the concluding prayer or Collect. They vary with the seasons (Advent, Christmastide, Lent, Eastertide, and Ordinary 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 the General Intercessions found within the confines of the Mass.

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