6
LITURGY LESSON: PENITENTIAL RITE
(Given:
Prior to the liturgical reforms of the Vatican Council, the altar boys - and they were all boys then - had to memorize prayers in the Latin language. The second most difficult was the "Confiteor." This prayer, which the altar boy said quietly on behalf of the entire congregation, was a confession of sins. It was an odd prayer, even in its English translation, because it was more like a litany, which repeats refrains.
When the experts discussed the reforms of the liturgy after the Council, they considered not having a penitential rite because there was only one evidence of it prior to the 8th Century - it was as if being twelve hundred years old wasn't old enough! After much discussion, however, they decided that a simple rite at the beginning of Mass was appropriate.8
In a moment, the priest will say to us some thing like, "My brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins."9 During the silence it is not the intention of the Church that we make a long, personal examination of conscience. What the Church wants us to do is to focus on that sinfulness that prevents us from becoming what God wants us to be. As a member of this community, we each make an act of faith that with God's help we can change.
Today, as a response, we will use the remnant of the "Confiteor" that remains in the new rite. ... Oh, yes, the most difficult Latin prayer the altar boy had to learn was the Suscipiat
8 Johnson, p. 16.
9 The Sacramentary, p. 362