The New Translation Part 4: The Penitential Act

This is the fourth installment in a series of short articles I wrote/adapted/edited for my parish bulletin. I will publish the others as they they appear.

The new Mass translation is coming in Advent! Back in 2000, Blessed Pope John Paul II issued the third edition of the Roman Missal. After more than ten years of consultation and work, the new English translation is finally ready.

The Confiteor is one of those prayers that every Catholic knows. Its name is taken from the first word of the prayer in Latin, Confiteor, which means “I confess”. Through the Confiteor we offer contrition to God for our sins and prepare for our participation in the Divine Mystery of the Eucharist.

The new translation will sound familiar to many older Catholics:

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,
And, striking their breast, they say:
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
then they continue:
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 new translation restores the prayer’s phrases and the gesture of striking the breast to the original order as given in the Latin. The two key modifications are highlighted in bold. The first replaces our current wording of “I have sinned through my own fault” with “I have greatly sinned.”

The second change is more significant. The words removed from the first section, “through my own fault,” are returned to their correct place in their full wording. “Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” is a direct translation of the Latin phrase mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

This language calls to mind our fallen human nature. It is good for us to acknowledge our sinfulness here, just as we do at sacramental Confession. In the Confiteor, we express our remorse and sorrow for not loving God and neighbour as we should.

Next time: the Gloria.

(Based on Roman Missal Formational Materials provided by the Secretariat for the Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2010, and materials provided by the Bishop Helmsing Institute)