What you didn’t know about the Confiteor Prayer

By Dann Aungst

If you are like me, it wasn’t but a few years ago that I didn’t even know what the Confiteor prayer was, much less the power it can actually have. I attended mass regularly, went through the motions, but never really knew, much less understood what I was praying.

Then one day at daily mass, a wonderful priest at our parish did a homily on the Confiteor prayer. What he said stunned me. Here is what I learned blended in with some suggestions to actually put this new understanding to use.

First a reminder of the prayer:

“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.”

Now, let’s take this piece by piece. I recommend doing this in front of the blessed sacrament if possible. If not, at least take some quiet time at home to do this.

First say this line:

“I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts”

Now take a few minutes and ask Jesus to reveal to you every thought you had in the last few days that was mean, critical, fueled by anger, judgemental, etc, and also thoughts that were not kind, edifying, affirming, or loving. Make mental notes or even write them down. Meditate on this for 3-5 minutes.

Want to order Confiteor prayer cards for yourself and others?

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