After this responsory, if the Office be of double rite or be an Office within an octave, or on the vigil of Epiphany or on Friday or Saturday after Ascension, or on a Sunday on which a double is commemorated, or an octave is celebrated, or on a semi-double feast within an octave, _Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo_, and the prayer _Dominus Deus omnipotens_ is said. But if the Office be not any of these mentioned just now, the responsory is followed by the _Preces_. _Preces_ (Title XXXIV.) In the Breviary there are two sets of preces, the Preces Dominicales for Sunday and the Preces Feriales for ferial Offices. These ferial preces of Prime differ from the ferial preces of Lauds, and are said in Prime when the ferial preces are said in Lauds, That is, on the ferias of Advent, Lent, Passiontide, Ember days and Vigils. The ferial preces of Lauds are found in the Breviary, immediately after the second set of Psalms for ferial Lauds and after the short responsory in the psalm arrangements for the days of the week. (See Lauds, _supra_, p. 188.) These prayers were introduced at a very early stage of Christian liturgy. St. Isidore writes that they come from Greek liturgy and the opening words _Kyrie eleison_ seem to indicate remnants of an old litany. Formerly they were read oftener during the liturgical year than we now are called on to repeat them. They are sometimes referred to as the _preces flebiles_, tearful prayers, because they are said in times of penance, and are formed to excite tears. In choir recitation they are said kneeling. When the preces or the preces feriales are said the sign of the cross is made from the forehead to the breast, at the words _Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini_. Then the Confiteor is said. 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.