A Prayer to the Most Holy God

(A prayer) so that He will look after us and free us from the three severe
scourges that are: Plague, Hunger and War - Revised

O God you we beseech
You that are the Creator,
to take away every illness
that goes around among us.
We pray you, Oh good God
to have pity on us.

We are rebellious children to you.
With a heart filthy and stained,
we are immersed in sin
and we are guilty of thousands of errors.
But grant, Oh good God
the pardon to the sinners.

We are not worthy of forgiveness,
for we are ungrateful people.
Your law that you gave to us,
it we have placed under our feet,
and we have insulted
the kindness of the divine King.

Don’t you see my brothers
that in the day to us present,
everywhere here one hears
blaspheming the Creator.
They curse God
as if He was a wrongdoer?

The adults blaspheme Him,
the children blaspheme Him,
and there are some children
who don’t know how to pray,
but the name of God
already they know how to curse.

God punishes us
because we are criminals,
because we are disobedient
to the law of God.
And if there come some scourges,
they are due to our errors.

God gave to us
six days of work,
and the seventh it is certain
that one must rest.
But today it is said of the festa,
it continues to be a torment.

The Sunday of God
today one treads on it.
One works on the worship day
more than on the day of work;
and in this way one transgresses
the command of God.

To the house of prayer
one goes to it by habit,
and with pomp and with audacity
only to be admired.
Many, many of them go to church
even to laugh and to joke.

The prayer to the Creator
one does not make with devotion.
One makes a little bit of prayer
with the mouth and not with the heart.
And for this no grace
does one obtain from God.

The word of the Gospel
is held to be a heresy,
and there are certain sinners
who want to bring it down.
But the law of the Gospel
tends always to triumph.

Jesus Christ assures us
with His very own mouth.
He has made us the promise
that the church will exist,
and not even all of hell
will be able to tear it down.

We are in a corrupt century,
completely immersed in sin,
and mankind is sullied
in great dishonesty.
One lives always immersed
in the greatest brutality!

Certain men of the world
are inspired by the devil,
that the Holy Matrimony
they do not want to embrace it.
Rather with dishonest women
they are lured to sin.

The sin of adultery
is an accursed sin,
that the Most Holy God was already forced
to punish it with severity,
and (He) sent a flood of waters
over all of the sinners.

God scourges us
because we are in a wicked time.
That for the poor of Christ
there is no more of humanity,
and the rich toward the poor
has no more charity.

The rich eats and drinks
and lives cheerfully,
and the poor faintly
he groans afflicted by the sorrow,
and the hunger and the misery
pierces him in his heart.

Among the Christians
here there reigns much envy,
everywhere there is perfidy.
No longer is there perfect love,
and they see their own children
insolent to their parents.

Certain children of today’s day,
they are such criminals,
that neither to the father nor to the relatives
they do not want to obey.
And in the middle of their vices
they want to live and die.

Oh my beloved brothers,
we confess frankly
that all of us of the present
are full of iniquity.
And if the Most Holy God does not pardon us,
what will become of us?

God is a father completely good
who is ready to forgive.
But even we must break
the roots to our errors,
and bring ourselves with faith
to the beloved Savior.

Eternal, omnipotent God,
to you only we resort,
in you only we confide
because you are a God of love,
who is ready to forgive
any sinner.

By the love of Jesus Christ,
who is our Savior,
take away every illness
that goes around among us.
To you we pray oh good God
to have pity on us.

Take away as well from us
every war, every heresy,
and the vile idolatry
that goes among us.
That one worships only one God
in spirit and truth.

Take away oh Great Most Holy God
every evil from the earth,
and the plague, hunger and war,
that come to perturb us.
To you we pray oh Savior
that you will liberate us.

Make to reign among Christians
holy peace and unity,
and a true brotherhood,
and perfect charity;
that there will be in heaven and in earth
Your holy will.

–Antonio Cereghino

Translated by:  Steve Cereghino, a 2nd great grandson of Antonio Cereghino, who was a Cereghino ballad singer.