Liturgy Lines

New Words for Worship Part 5: Penitential Rite
This week’s column will look at three more examples of changes in the people’s texts that occur in the Introductory Rites of the Mass. For ease of comparison, the existing and the revised versions are shown side by side.
Penitential Rite Option I: General Confession or Confiteor

PRESENT TEXT

I confess to almighty God,and to you, my brothers and sisters,that I have sinned through my own fault,in my thoughts and in my words,in what I have done,and in what I have failed to do;

and 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.

NEW TRANSLATION

I confess to almighty Godand to you, my brothers and sisters,that I have greatly sinnedin my thoughts and in my words,in what I have doneand 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 major change here is the insertion of the repetitive “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”, a direct translation of the Latin mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. “Virgins”, “Angels” and “Saints” in the new translation are not misprints. As written English increasingly does away with the use of capital first letters even for proper nouns, the revised translation capitalises dozens of words that are now in lower case.
Penitential Rite Option II

PRESENT TEXT

P: Lord, we have sinned against you:
Lord, have mercy.
R: Lord, have mercy.
P: Lord, show us your mercy and love.
R: And grant us your salvation.

NEW TRANSLATION

P: Have mercy on us, O Lord.

R: For we have sinned against you.
P: Show us, O Lord, your mercy.
R: And grant us your salvation.

This option seems not to be used very often: perhaps the new Missal provides an opportunity to make more frequent use of this form which, although changed, retains its rhythmic quality of a litany.
Penitential Rite Option III, consisting of three invocations followed by “Lord/Christ, have mercy”, has not changed.