The Confiteor was from an early date a prayer said privately as a preparation for Mass.  It is found in several forms; Confiteor Deo, beatae Mariae, omnibus sanctis et vobis (Sarum Missal), but since the time of St. Pius V. (1566-1572) our present form alone was followed and allowed (S.  R. C., 13th February, 1666).  If the Office be recited privately or with one or two companions, the confiteor is said once only and simultaneously in the preces, and the words vobis fratribus and vos fratres, which priests say in the opening prayer of Mass are omitted.  It should be remarked, too, that the Misereatur and Indulgentiam have not in this location vestri, vestris, vos, but nostri, nostris, nos.  Sometimes errors in this part of the recitation of the Office are unnoticed, and this pronoun error makes the formula meaningless.

After the Indulgentiam come the concluding versicles of the preces, Dignare ... sine peccato ... miserere ... miserere ...  Fiat ...  Quemadmodum ...  Domine ...  Et ...  Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo, and the prayer Domine Deus Omnipotens ...  Amen. ...  Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo. ...  Benedicamus Domino, Deo gratias.  If the Office be said in choir, the martyrology is read at this part of Prime.  The reading of the martyrology is not of obligation in private recitation of the Office; but the reading of it was highly recommended, even in private recitation, by Pope Gregory XIII. (14th January, 1584; see his words in the beginning of the Martyrology).

Then are said, Pretiosa ... mors ... sancta Maria ...  Deus in adjutorium...  Domine ad adjuvandum (both the latter being repeated thrice) ...  Gloria Patri ...  Sicut erat ...  Kyrie eleison ...  Christe eleison ...  Kyrie eleison ...  Pater Noster (silently) until words “Et ne nos” ...  Sed libera ...  Respice ...  Et sit ...  Gloria Patri ...  Sicut erat ...  Oremus, Dirigere et ...  Amen, Jube Domine ...  Dies et actus ...  Amen.

The short lesson which, on all feasts, is the same as the chapter which is said at None will be found in the proper or common, under that Hour, The new Psalter and new rubrics made no change in this matter.  Hence, for example, on the feast of SS.  Peter and Paul the short lesson at end of Prime is taken from None of the feast, “Et Petrus ad se reversus”; the short lesson for Prime on the feast of St. Aloysius is “Lex Dei ejus” and not the short lesson printed in the Psalter under the day’s Office.

On all Sundays and week days it varies according to the season.  Thus—­

1.  From the 14th January until the first Saturday in Lent, from Monday to Wednesday in Trinity week, from the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi until the Saturday before Advent, the short lesson is “Dominus autem” (II.  Thess. iii.),

2.  From the first Sunday of Advent until the 23rd December inclusive it is “Domine miserere” (Isaias xxxiii,).