The Way We Pray: Confiteor

In last Sunday’s Bulletin, you might have read about our upcoming English lan- guage updates in the Mass. I mentioned the change to the greeting:

Priest: “The Lord be with you.”
You All: “And with your spirit.”

After this initial greeting on most Sundays, the celebrant invites everyone to pre- pare themselves to celebrate the sacred Mysteries, seek God’s mercy and for- giveness, and acknowledge a communal need for grace and salvation from individ- ual sin. In other, simpler words, we’re showing that we need divine forgiveness and heavenly grace so we can participate in what is holy and pure and true. Deacon Randy might then begin the Penitential Rite….

“Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy”
or “Kyrie, eleison; Christe, eleison; Kyrie, eleison.”

Or the priest might begin an ancient prayer known by it’s Latin name, Confiteor. There has been a change in the translation into English. So this might be a prayer that you’d memorize in this new version.

I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done
and in what I have failed to do,
through my fault,
through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

For those that might remember the Latin, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, you can see the directly translated through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.

So, once we’ve confessed or otherwise demonstrated that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s ideal for humanity, then we can receive the fullest blessing of for- giveness, Sacrament, and God’s glory.

Speaking of Glory, that’s the subject for next week!