Orationes

Preces populi tui, quaesumus, Domine, clementer exaudi: ut, qui iuste pro peccatis nostris affligimur, pro tui nominis gloria misericorditer liberemur.

"Hear the prayers of your people, we ask you, O Lord, in your clemency: that we who are justly cast down because of our sins, may mercifully be set free because of the glory of your name."

Remarks:
*We ask the Lord to be gentle enough to hear us, and to be merciful enough to forgive us.
*There is a contrast between iuste and misericorditer: God punishes us in his justice, but frees us in his mercy.
*In being merciful to us, God in fact adds to his own glory; in fact that is why we ask his mercy; not for our glory, but for his.