Nunc Coepi: The Penitential Rite of Divine Worship Revisited

The Penitential Rite

In Divine Worship, the Penitential Rite is prayed approximately in the middle of the Solemn (Sung) Mass. Most Latin Rite Catholics are used to the Penitential Rite occurring near the beginning of the Mass, prior to the Liturgy of the Word (Mass of the Catechumens). In the Ordinariate Form of the Mass, after the Creed and the Prayers of the People, we pause to acknowledge our dependence on God and to rededicate our lives to Him.

The priest calls us to the truth, to verify the content of our hearts. The priest could say to us, "You have lied to yourself and God by sinning; do not lie now. God awaits you, His beloved child, and calls you to abandon your faults and return home, to draw closer to Him and be welcomed once again into His loving embrace. Speak truthfully, therefore, about what you have done. God sees all. But how will you change unless you admit to that lingering effect on you, the drag of concupiscence, and expose your need for God's grace to be forgiven by Him and to live freely as children of God?"

In the forum of the Mass, we acknowledge contrition for venial sins which, if left unattended, could fester and kill the soul. We implore God to remove the cataracts that blind us to the seriousness of sins great and small.

Divine Worship has the Penitential Rite placed at the transept of the Liturgy. That is, it is located after the Prayers of the People and before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist when, during times of persecution, the non-baptized - i.e., those being schooled in the Way and not yet admitted to Holy Communion - would be excused from the Mass.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,‘God, be merciful to me a sinner! | St Luke 18:13

The Penitential Rite of Divine Worship invites worshippers of God to abandon the lazy slang of dower and dull religion to allow God to sing in and through hearts purified of timidity and sloth.

Nunc Coepi

The Penitential Rite provides worshippers the benefit of a practical spiritual formation by the Liturgy of the Word to help listeners shed unholy preoccupations and distractions. The Lesson and the Epistle, the Holy Gospel and the Homily, dispose the worshipper—the entire congregation—to receptivity to the Offertory in the walk up to the summit of the Mass, i.e., the sacrifice of the Mass, the Consecration, and Holy Communion.

Divine Worship includes several prayers drawn from the Anglican Patrimony which capture a uniquely English sobriety as well as the virtuosic balance of contemplative and active spirituality one finds among the saints of the British Isles. Those prayers provide worshippers with reassurance and ample room for examining their individual consciences and for measuring the depth (or lack thereof) of their convictions. Sober and solemn, not somber. And, because it is offers a sobering beauty and a solemn ardor, Divine Worship provides room for the soul to shed useless preoccupations to discover and enter into the jubilation of the Holy Spirit, the Love-Person proceeding from the Father and (through) the Son. The great hymns of the Anglican Patrimony are prayers that capture the exuberant praise, solemn adoration, heartfelt contrition, joyful thanksgiving and hope-filled supplication of the soul enticed by the Holy Spirit into the embrace of the Holy Trinity. | W. Clanton

Received into the Catholic Church from the (Anglican) Book of Common Prayer compiled by Thomas Cranmer, the solemn rite of repentance was included in the first Book of Common Prayer in A.D. 1549. Notice how the prayer provides an immediate and explicit orientation for the penitent. There is no doubt that the prayer of the Penitential Rite is directed to God. The priest or deacon reminds us, too, in the introduction to the Penitential Rite, that our hope and trust is in God.

We admit our faults, acknowledging the severity of our sins and the threat they pose to our communion of love with God. Dare we let such wounds go unattended for even a day, an hour or even a minute, and risk further loss of intimacy with the Lord?

Refreshment and everlasting life offered by the one true Saviour of sinners, our Advocate Jesus Christ. The Rite is worth quoting in full.

THE PENITENTIAL RITE

Facing the People, the Deacon or Priest says:

Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways: draw near with faith, and make your humble confession to Almighty God, meekly kneeling upon your knees.

The People kneel. Silence may be kept, and then the Priest, facing the altar, begins as follows and the People join in saying:

ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life, to the honour and glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Priest says: May Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, have mercy on us, pardon and deliver us from all our sins, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness, and bring us to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Recommended activity: memorize the General Confession “Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”]

Truly, the following words are words of comfort, of serenity, of the peace which only Christ can provide to the soul wearied by fears, faults and failures.

THE COMFORTABLE WORDS

Then, facing the People, the Deacon or Priest may rehearse one or more of the following sentences: Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all who truly turn to him.

Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. St Matthew 11:28

God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. St John 3:16

Hear also what Saint Paul saith: This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1:15

Hear also what Saint John saith: If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins (and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world). 1 John 2:1-2

THE GENERAL CONFESSION | A Meditation

The General Confession is laid out in a manner that leads the worshipper through the valley of sin and despair to contrition and the promised land of restoration, of mercy, of love and forgiveness and newness of life.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men:

"maker of all things, judge of all men."

The acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God. We cannot get beyond our sins, the mess of our own making, without divine assistance. God is always present to give us His strength in the midst of our weaknesses.

God is all-knowing, all-seeing. We acknowledge His sovereignty over our lives. He is Lord; He is loving Father. He knows the full content of our hearts. What might cause us to recoil in horror - and so we should when confronted with our sins - is trumped by God's mercy. God does not lie to us about the condition of our souls. He wants us to be truly free so that we may love truly. A proper and detailed examination of conscience (e.g., in the pew before Mass, facing the Blessed Sacrament) invites God the Holy Spirit to help us see clearly those areas of our life that contradict the will of God (St John 8:32).

We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine majesty,

"...our manifold sins and wickedness."

The acknowledgement of our sins, carelessly or willfully committed, that kill the life of God in our souls and alienate us from God. To acknowledge our sins is to acknowledge we have chosen a disease, embraced an addiction, have chosen an idol over God, and thereby acknowledge we want to be free of said impediments to God and the life and hope and joy and peace that He offers. We acknowledge that our transgressions defy numbering. The number of our small-minded acts of self preservation at the expense of another, of our placing obstacles in the way of love of God and neighbour, is beyond our ability to recall. So, we must honestly admit that our offences against charity and truth are manifold. The many little "uglies", those acidic cataracts, blind us to the beauty of God and others created in His image.

provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us.

God's wrath and indignation (due to us subverting our potential) may very well be expressed by His allowing us to experience the full consequences of our sinful acts (Romans 1:24-25) in order for us to feel the limits of our discipline, especially when we ignore our dependence upon God's grace to inform and guide our understanding and actions toward virtuous living. Aided by grace, we grow into our potential. Bereft of grace, we lose site of God and become subject to disordered passions. We then wither and we fade into trivial pursuits.

We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings;

"Perfect contrition (also called contrition of charity) is a repentance for sin that is motivated by faith and the love of God. It contrasts with imperfect contrition, which arises from a less pure motive, such as common decency or fear of Hell (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed.)."

By surrendering all pretense, i.e., by admitting the fault of our misdoings (sins of commission and omission) is solely our own, we expose our hearts to a thorough cleansing, to a restoration and peace that only God can and does give.

"We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry."

Contrition for sin is essential in order to grow in holiness. We tell our loving Father what He already knows, and through the window of our repentance He meets us with His love.

the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable.

"the burden of them is intolerable."

Anyone who has been in love knows how utterly rotten it feels to offend someone we love. We cannot bear the weight of our transgression.

We remember our sins—and it is far too easy to remember the sins of others—and are prone to despairing over those seemingly unconquerable sins (Romans 7). As many times as we may fall, God will—if we allow Him—hoist us up out of our sins and conquer our despair with His life-restoring mercy.

Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, forgive us all that is past;

"Have mercy on us."

We, together, seek the forgiveness and mercy of God. When we harm our neighbour, we offend God, too. We recall 1 John 4:20: If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

When we confess our sins, God no longer remembers those sins. And the devil can no longer use those sins against us. God consigns to oblivion all sins absolved in the Sacrament of Penance. What we recall and confess in the Penitential Rite of the Mass, those venial or lesser sins that damage our relationship with God and which can, if not confessed, lead to mortal sin that destroys our relationship with God, those venial sins are wiped away "by receiving Communion and by the other intercessory prayers of Mass."

"...forgive us all that is past; and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life  "

"...grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life. ".

We trust in God's mercy, and, acknowledging again God's sovereignty, we wholly submit our lives to our loving Father, confident in God's promise of "newness of life." We long to serve Him, not our narrow self-interests.

By God's grace, we are able to place things into perspective. What's past is past. We must bring our sins to confession—mortal sins must be confessed in the Sacrament of Confession—and seek the grace of God to move forward.

and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life, to the honour and glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our hope is a grace given by God. We dispose ourselves to God and invite Him to sustain in us that hope and trust in Him. He provides us with the strength to attain to the perfect love of God and neighbour. After all, only God can give us the gift of Himself, His very life in and through Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man—for he alone is the God-man like us in all things but sin—so that we may offer fitting praise to God. When we offer praise to God, that too disposes us to His perfection. He desires that we love as He loves. It is the mission of the disciple of Christ to announce the Kingdom of God, that perfect Kingdom of love for which Jesus lived and died, that Kingdom Jesus embodies and communicates to us every Mass: in the proclaimed word (Holy Scripture); in the person of the priest; in the congregation (St Matthew 18:20); and most profoundly in the Holy Eucharist. If we are to lovingly consume the Body and Blood of Christ, we must allow ourselves to be consumed by Christ. We can only do that if we cooperate with God. That cooperation necessarily requires that we submit our thoughts and actions to scrutiny and invite God to loose us from sin.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. | St John 8:32

This sublime prayer of humility, of intimate conversation with the Lord, accompanied by the act of kneeling, expresses 1) the heart of a child of God who truly loves his Lord and Saviour, and 2) the heart of the Christian who desires to be closer to his Heavenly Father. In response to the movement of grace, we place ourselves before the throne of God mindful of our weakness(es), trusting in the mercy of God. 

The priest reminds us of God's mercy and that we should have hope. This language or the character of this prayer points us in the direction of the Confessional where we can offer our deepest sorrow for mortal sins and receive particular counsel from the priest who helps us examine our lives, and offers timely guidance and proportionate correction (penance) to help us make amends for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, for what we have left undone.

For Reflection

CCC 2515 | Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason. The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the "flesh" against the "spirit." Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man's moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins.

CCC 2516 | Because man is a composite being, spirit and body, there already exists a certain tension in him; a certain struggle of tendencies between "spirit" and "flesh" develops. But in fact, this struggle belongs to the heritage of sin. It is a consequence of sin and at the same time a confirmation of it. It is part of the daily experience of the spiritual battle.