A Look at the Mass: The Penitential Act

Many are familiar with the old mnemonic, ACTS, in order to remember the four ends of the Mass. The first is adoration of God, the second is contrition for our sins, the third, thanksgiving, and the fourth and final end is supplication, or asking for stuff. Most of the rites of the Mass involve a number of these four, but it is fairly evident that the Penitential Act is given to contrition for our sins and begging God for mercy.

For the purpose of organization I will consider the first two options of the Penitential Rite - the Confiteor and the "Have mercy on us, O Lord..." - in this post, and then next week consider the Kyrie in the next, along with the third Penitential Rite option, since the Kyrie is included in it. 

This rite always seems to have been a basic part of the preparation for the Mass, which makes sense. Obviously, when approaching the Sacred Mysteries, we remember the words of our Lord, "Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6)," and, "He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over (John 13:10)," before the Last Supper. In the first quote, Jesus reminds us that holy things should only be given to holy people. In the second, Jesus emphasizes the need to remember that purity is required before approaching the Banquet Table of the Eucharist, as the Apostles were about to share in the Eucharistic Meal for the first time.

Additionally, St. Paul says, "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)." The insistence is that one must remember that he is an unworthy sinner and cannot worthily approach the Eucharist without our Lord having first made us worthy. And that which holds us back from a worthy Communion is of course our sins. For this reason, the first thing the priest and ministers did before approaching the altar was confess their sins.

And it is for this same reason that the priest invites the people to recall their sins with the following formula:

"Brethren (brothers and sisters), let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries." 

We do not recall our sins and failings simply to remind ourselves of our unworthiness, however. We know that the Lord can give us the grace to overcome them, and this is one of the reasons for our coming to Mass and receiving Holy Communion. It is also necessary to look specifically at the words, "prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries." This cannot be done without God's grace, for everything we do requires God's grace. Therefore, we also recall our sins in order to allow God to give us grace to participate in the Holy Mass itself.

Next follows, the confession of our sins. Historically speaking, this has taken on many different forms. While we do not actually confess our specific sins and failings here as we do in the Sacrament of Confession, the early Church may have actually done that here. They would perform the Sacrament of Confession before beginning Mass, so that those who participated would be free of sin. This is still the case with some religious orders to this day, and has been throughout history. It is necessary to note that in the early Church the Sacrament of Confession was celebrated publicly, instead of the private confessions we are familiar with (and probably quite thankful for). 

Once public Confession was no longer the norm, this part of the Mass truly began its development. There was a tendency to relate this part of the Mass to Confession in that there is truly a forgiveness of sins which takes place. The obvious difference in the Penitential Rite, led by a priest, and the Sacrament of Penance is the extent to which sins can be forgiven. The Penitential Rite, as noted by Dom Prosper Gueranger, is that it is only a sacramental (The Holy Mass, Section: Confiteor). Thus, it can forgive venial sins to the extent we are contrite for them. The Sacrament is an all or nothing in its elimination of sin, both mortal and venial.  

Moving on, within the Extraordinary Form of the Mass we find elements which are common to both of the two options of the Penitential Rite encompassed within this post. The text for the first option of the Penitential Rite, of the Ordinary Form, is known as the Confiteor: 

"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."

Compare the above to a translation of the Confiteor of the Extraordinary Form:

"I confess to Almighty God, 
to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, 
to Blessed Michael the Archangel, 
to Blessed John the Baptist, 
to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul,
to all the Saints, 
and to you, brethren, (or and to you, Father,)
that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed:
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault.
Therefore I beseech the Blessed Mary ever Virgin,
Blessed Michael the Archangel,
Blessed John the Baptist,
the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul,
all the Saints, 
and you, brethren, (or and you, Father,)
to pray for me to the Lord our God."

The most striking things one will likely notice between the two is the lack of the saints in the current form, and the addition of the mention of sins of omission. By tradition, there were many forms used for the Confiteor, and it was common practice in the early Church to ask others to pray for you, especially the Saints. The unity between the Church Triumphant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Militant is thus beautifully expressed in this penitential text. The current text is a bit older in basic form, as the original Confiteor seems to have primarily addressed the first half of the confession of faults to the Church on earth, hence, "to you my brothers and sisters." The second half was then addressed to the Church Triumphant, with the request that all the Angels and Saints may intercede before the throne of God for the souls gathered at the Mass. While the Mother of God quickly found her way into the Confiteor, the development of the other saints was more varied and subject to the locations at which it was used. 

We can see, then, that the revision of the Confiteor still contains the same idea, in that when we use it, after calling to mind our sins, we are acknowledging before all gathered with us that we are unworthy sinners in need of God's mercy. Without His mercy and grace we would be left in the depths of depravity, the beginning of which is seen by the sins we just called to mind, for we see that they really are "grievous faults," when compared to the ultimate Goodness of God. This, then leads us, as Gueranger says, to strike our breasts, an ancient sign of repentance and sorrow for sin (The Holy Mass, Section: Confiteor). While this sign is seen repeatedly throughout Scripture, perhaps the most famous is from the Gospel of Luke after the Death of Jesus, "And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts (23:48)." 

After this external display of sorrow for our sins, we move on in hope, because the message of the Gospel is one of hope, not of despair. Our Lord said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32)." We can trust, then, that he will forgive us our sins, but like the tax collector in the Gospel, we know how unworthy of it we are (Luke 18:9-14). For this reason we call on the Blessed Mother, to whom the Lord grants petitions with such love, and to all the Angels and Saints, who are now purified of their sins, to intercede for us. However, we cannot forget that the Mass is a communal prayer, which is why we also ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for us to God. We journey on the pilgrimage to Heaven together. 

Now, the second option for the Penitential Rite is:

Priest: "Have mercy on us, O Lord."
People: "For we have sinned against you." 
Priest: "Show us, O Lord, your mercy. 
People: "And grant us your salvation."

This option is likely based off of the versicles of the Extraordinary Form used immediately before the priest ascends the altar. They are, translated:

Priest: "Thou will turn again, O God, and quicken us."
Minister: "And Thy people will rejoice in Thee."
Priest: "Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy."
Minister: "And grant us Thy salvation."
Priest: "O Lord, hear my prayer."
Minister: "And let my cry come unto Thee." 

We can here see that the second versicle has been retained as half of the second option of the Ordinary Form's Penitential Rite. Within this option, after calling to mind our sins, we make our humble plea for mercy, acknowledging before the Lord and all we are gathered with that we are unworthy sinners in need of God's grace and mercy. We acknowledge that it is only through His mercy that we can be brought to salvation. 

This is not to say that our works are useless in our salvation, but that they all depend upon God's grace to have any merit for our souls. Within the Penitential Rite then, we do a work which, through faith, may provide for the remission of our sins so that we can, by grace, participate in the Sacred Mysteries about to take place.

The following absolution by the priest then follows any of the options for the admission of sins and plea for God's mercy:

"May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen."  

As stated above this absolution has the power to forgive venial sins if we are contrite for them. However, it is not the traditional form for the absolution. Instead it was more commonly used as a prayer that God would have mercy on the soul. My suspicions, without being able to do the research into the mind of those who changed it in the Ordinary Form, is to clear up any relation it may have to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so as to differentiate clearly between the Sacrament and sacramentals.  

The prayer, used by the priest, in which he does not even exclude himself, for he perhaps needs mercy the most due to the work he is about to undertake, is fairly clear in what it asks for. We need the mercy of God to participate worthily in the Mass. We desire the forgiveness of our sins so that we might grow closer to God. Finally, we hope for our last end, and ultimate reason for all our acts, especially that of participation in the Holy Mass - our salvation.

All historical information taken from:
Rev. Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J. The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development. Volume 1. Part III: Confiteor, 298-311, Kyrie Eleison, 333-346. Translated by Rev. Francis A. Brunner, C.SS.R. (Christian Classics: Notre Dame, Indiana, 1951).