The Penitential Rite
As Catholics, it’s important that we celebrate the Eucharist
with a clean heart. That’s why at the beginning of each
Mass we have the Penitential Rite. We take a moment of
We may repeat after the priest or deacon, “Lord have mercy,
Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.” In this we ask pardon from
all three persons of the Trinity. We may also say or sing “Kyrie
eleison.” This is Greek for “Lord, have mercy.”
Finally, we may recite a longer prayer called the Confiteor, a Latin
word which means “I confess,” in which we say:
“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.”
The Penitential Rite ends with the prayer of the priest, “May
almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to
everlasting life.”
In the Penitential Rite, our venial sins are forgiven. But this general
confession of sins does not replace individual confession with a
priest. We must always remember that if we have committed any
mortal sins, we must make a sacramental confession before receiving
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silence to call to mind our sins and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
This is done in a few different ways.
the Eucharist.
Notes