Through my own fault

Excerpts from the book, A Guide to the New Translation of The Mass written by Edward Sri, S.T.D. and printed by Ascension Press in 2011.

In the prayer known as the Confiteor the new translation better reflects the Latin text of the Mass and helps us cultivate a more humble, sorrowful attitude toward God as we confess our sins. Instead of simply saying that I have sinned “through my own fault”, as in the old translation, we will now repeat it three times while striking our breasts in a sign of repentance, saying “Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”.

This repetition more fully expresses our sorrow over sin. When we are at fault over something small we might simply say “I’m sorry”. But if it is a more serious matter and we deeply feel sorrow over our actions, we would apologize several times. This prayer in the liturgy helps us recognize that sinning against God is no light matter. We must take responsibility for whatever wrong we have done and whatever good have we failed to do.

Begining on the 5th of November, I'll present an indepth look at the Mass in a new section below the Written Assignments section in the right hand column. For now, I'll continue presenting short weekly posts detailing some of the more obvious changes.