A Benedictine Confiteor

The Penitential Act, something that we refer to as the Confiteor [Latin for “I Confess”] is an important part of the Liturgy of the Mass.

Not only publicly in collective worship. It also serves an intimately important role in our private worship as an element of prayer.

The Confiteor calls us to reflection and examination of conscience. It calls us to reckon with our fallen nature. It beckons us to depend upon not only the grace and mercy of God but also the efficacious intercession of the Communion of Saints.

Implicit in the Confiteor is our obligation to pray for one another as fellow pilgrims on our journey toward eternity and the just rewards to be experienced when we pass through the doorway of physical death.

Today’s English translation of The Confiteor is fairly basic and simplified.

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 Confiteor, as translated into English from the Breviarium Monasticum in 1925 and included in the Monastic Diurnal, is not so concise. [See NOTE below.]

I confess to God Almighty,

To blessed Mary ever Virgin,

To blessed Michael the Archangel,

To blessed John the Baptist,

To the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,

(to our blessed Father Benedict)

To all the Saints,

And to you,

Brethren,

That I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed:

By my fault,

By my own fault,

By my own most grievous fault.

Wherefore I beg blessed Mary every Virgin,

Blessed Michael the Archangel,

Blessed John the Baptist,

The holy Apostles Peter and Paul,

(our blessed Father Benedict)

All the Saints,

And you, brethren,

To pray for me to the Lord our God.

Is the concise English version an improvement or does the reduction take substance away from the older?

Personally, with my affection for and commitment to “things distinctively Benedictine”, I prefer the older Benedictine Confiteor.

[NOTE] This may be of particular interest to Benedictines that do not prescribe to Roman Catholicism: Lancelot Andrewes Press offers copies of The Monastic Diurnal, according to the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, with additional rubrics and devotions for recitation in accordance with The Book of Common Prayer.