The Confiteor, A Prayer of Repentance

As we've been talking about sin all week (why we must confess, as an act of the will, recurring sin, and the sinless Mary), I thought we might end the week by taking a look at a prayer that many of us say each and every Sunday, the Confiteor - the  "I confess to almighty God."

The version we say in Mass (since the new translation came out in 2010, thank you Pope Benedict!) is

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.

You'll remember that we used to say:

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned
through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and 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. 

All of which translates the same Latin text from the 1970 Missal:

Confiteor Deo omnipotenti,

et vobis fratres,

quia peccavi nimis

cogitatione, verbo,

opere et omissione:

mea culpa, mea culpa,

mea maxima culpa.

Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem,

omnes Angelos et Sanctos,

et vos, fratres,

orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum.

Those of us who also attend the forma extraordinaria will be accustomed to the version as found in the 1962 Missal, which reads (in Latin):

Confiteor Deo omnipotenti
beatie Mariae semper Virgini,
beato Michaeli Archanelo,
beato Ioanni Baptistae,
sanctis Apostolis Petro et Paulo,
omnibus Sanctis,
et vobis, fratres:
quia peccavi nimis cogitatione,
verbo et opere:
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem,
beatum Michaelem Archangelum,
beatum Ioannem Baptistam,
sanctos Apostolos Petrem et Paulum,
omnes Sanctos,
et vos, fratres,
orare pro me ad Dominum, Deum nostrum.

And in English

I confess to Almighty God,
to the blessed Mary ever Virgin,
blessed Michael the Archangel,
blessed John the Baptist,
the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,
to all the Saints,
and to you, brothers,
that I have sinned exceedingly in thought
word, and deed,
through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.
Therefore, I beseech Mary, ever Virgin,
blessed Michael the Archangel,
blessed John the Baptist,
the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,
all the Saints,
and you, brothers,
to pray to the Lord our God for me.

All of which shows us that our God is a loving and merciful God. Therefore, when we sin, we need just return to our Lord (through the sacrament of confession), embrace His mercy, allow Him to change us to more fully conform to His image and likeness and move forward to, as St Josemaria Escriva would have it, "final victory."

None of this means we can separate God's mercy from His justice. None of this means we can sin without repenting and avoid the fires of Hell. But it does mean that nothing we do is more powerful than this...

The Result of our Sins.