{"id":59287,"date":"2022-02-10T17:29:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T23:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=59287"},"modified":"2022-02-20T17:16:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T23:16:55","slug":"is-the-confiteor-an-obligatory-part-of-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/10\/is-the-confiteor-an-obligatory-part-of-mass\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Confiteor an obligatory part of Mass?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI published a letter<\/a> earlier this week regarding the report on abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. This post will not deal with the important issue of abuse in the Church, but, given that this is a liturgical blog, \u00a0I would like to comment on a liturgical assumption that seems to be made in the letter.<\/p>\n

The Pope Emeritus speaks about the Confiteor<\/em> or the \u201cI confess\u201d in the Order of Mass.\u00a0 He says:<\/p>\n

I am increasingly struck by the fact that day after day the Church begins the celebration of Holy Mass \u2013 in which the Lord gives us his word and his very self \u2013 with the confession of our sins and a petition for forgiveness. We publicly implore the living God to forgive [the sins we have committed through] our fault, through our most grievous fault. It is clear to me that the words \u201cmost grievous\u201d do not apply each day and to every person in the same way. Yet every day they do cause me to question if today too I should speak of a most grievous fault. And they tell me with consolation that however great my fault may be today, the Lord forgives me, if I sincerely allow myself to be examined by him, and am really prepared to change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This could give the impression that the Confiteor <\/em>is an obligatory part of the Introductory Rites of the Eucharist. \u00a0However, it is not that simple.\u00a0 The prayer is an option and not obligatory in the current form of the Roman Missal.<\/p>\n

The prayer entered the Order of Mass during the Middle Ages as part of the prayers at the foot of the altar.\u00a0 It was prayed by the priest and the deacon and later the priest and the altar servers. \u00a0Over the centuries it proved to be very popular with clerics and often different orders added many saints to what almost became a litany within the prayer. Prior to the Council the prayer started with a list of saints (albeit a much-shortened list than many found in medieval liturgical sources): \u201cI 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, that I have sinned exceedingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while in its origins this is a private prayer. During the Dialogue Mases of the earlier part of the twentieth century it began to be prayed by the assembly.\u00a0 After the Council the current abbreviated form of it was added to the Order of Mass and was to be prayed by the whole assembly.<\/p>\n

But it does not have to be prayed in every Mass and I would go as far as saying that it shouldn’t be prayer in every Mass. In my experience many celebrants automatically use this prayer at the start of each and every Mass (even when forbidden by the rubrics).<\/p>\n

The Order of Mass in the current Roman Missal presents a Penitential Act as the norm, but there are occasions where it ought not to be used.\u00a0 However, even if the majority of Masses have a Penitential Act, this Penitential Act has three equal forms. The Confiteor<\/em> is in the first form of the Penitential Act.\u00a0 The second form has the liturgical dialogue: \u201cHave mercy on us, O Lord. For we have sinned against you.<\/em> Show us, O Lord, your mercy. And grant us your salvation<\/em>.\u201d The third form has the Kyrie <\/em>invocations \u201cYou were sent to heal the contrite of heart: Lord have mercy\u2026\u201d A note in the Order of Mass suggests that \u201cfrom time to time on Sundays, especially in Easter Time, instead of the customary Penitential Act, the blessing and sprinkling of water may take place \u2026 as a reminder of Baptism.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Mass of the Easter Vigil, arguably the most important Mass in the Church’s year, there is no Penitential Rite. \u00a0During Funeral Masses, the rites of the Reception of the Body replace the Penitential Act when the Body is received at the start of Mass. Likewise, in the Second Typical Edition of the Order of Christian Matrimony, the Introductory Rites of the OCM replace the Penitential Act. During Midnight Mass, the Proclamation of the Birth of Christ takes the place of the Penitential Act. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours <\/em>(#94) tells us that when Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer or Prayer During the Day is prayed immediately before Mass the penitential rite is omitted. This means that communities that habitually join the celebration of the Hours to Mass might never pray the Confiteor<\/em> during Mass.<\/p>\n

Personally, as I celebrant, I do use the Confiteor<\/em> but not exclusively. I usually pray it at Masses with a penitential theme and on Fridays (and during Advent and Lent on Wednesdays as well). But I realize that it is one among many options. The other two regular options are also beautiful expressions of communal penance that the Christian assembly deserves to hear and pray regularly.<\/p>\n

I wonder what the experience and opinions of PrayTell readers is? Is the Confetior<\/em> prayed in almost all Masses you attend? Do you think it should be prayed more or less? Are there times or situations when it should be used more or less?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI published a letter earlier this week regarding the report on abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. This post will not deal with the important issue of abuse in the Church, but, given that this is a liturgical blog, \u00a0I would like to comment on a liturgical assumption that seems to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":59288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3118,3149,19,1398,28,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-do-it-rite","category-mass","category-new-missal-implementation","category-pope-benedict-xvi","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Confiteor an obligatory part of Mass? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/10\/is-the-confiteor-an-obligatory-part-of-mass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Confiteor an obligatory part of Mass? - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI published a letter earlier this week regarding the report on abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/48480373757_4f1203787a_b.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59291,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59287\/revisions\/59291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}