PENITENTIAL ACT: TEXT AND COMMENTARY
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,
And, striking their breast, they say:
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.
At the beginning of Mass, we acknowledge our sins and praise God’s mercy in the Penitential Act (formerly called the “Penitential Rite”). The new translation of the ancient confession of sin, the Confiteor, reflects the Latin text, with the thrice-repeated words “through my fault,” and the ritual gesture of striking the breast.
In the 1570 Roman Missal (the “Tridentine” Rite, because it dates from the Council of Trent), this prayer actually occurs twice – once at the beginning of Mass, in the prayers said at the foot of the altar, and again just before the communion of the faithful. The reformed rite places it here, and makes it a prayer said by the entire assembly – priest and people together.
The Confiteor always rings true. If one had to summarize it in one word, perhaps that word would not be “sin” or “confession” but responsibility: because this prayer is all about taking responsibility for our sins. They are not thrust upon us—they are our own fault, as we now repeat three times. We sin not only in words, but in thoughts; not only in action, but in omission.
But there is hope in this prayer as well, as we turn towards God, and there is healing in the community that surrounds us: our “brothers and sisters” in the pews with us, and the invisible communion of saints, with Mary at their head, who pray for us to God.
