Prayers of Confession
Confession is telling the truth to God about yourself, without softening it and without despairing over it. These prayers hold both halves.
You will find traditional acts of contrition, penitential psalms used by the church for centuries, and short prayers for examining the day before sleep.
17 prayers
- A General Confession
Cranmer's general confession from the Book of Common Prayer (1552), said daily at Morning and Evening Prayer by Anglicans for nearly five…
- Acts of Rejection
A litany of renunciation, pairing each rejected vice with the opposing virtue. It follows the classical Christian doctrine of agere contra…
- Confession and Absolution (Lutheran Divine Service)
The confession said at the beginning of the Lutheran Divine Service, descended from Luther's German Mass and the confessional order of the…
- Daniel's Prayer of Confession
Daniel, reading Jeremiah in exile, sets his face to seek God with fasting and confesses on behalf of his nation: 'we do not present our…
- Ezra's Confession
Ezra kneels at the evening sacrifice, ashamed to lift his face, and confesses the sins of the whole people as his own. It is the model of…
- Prayer After Confession
A traditional thanksgiving prayed after absolution, while performing one's penance. The Church has always paired sorrow with gratitude:…
- Prayer Before a Crucifix (En Ego, O Bone et Dulcissime Iesu)
Known by its Latin opening En ego, O bone et dulcissime Iesu, this prayer appears in fifteenth-century devotional books and became…
- Prayer Before Confession
A traditional preparatory prayer found in Catholic manuals of devotion for centuries. Before examining his conscience, the penitent asks…
- Prayer Before Mass (St. Ambrose)
The prayer of St. Ambrose of Milan, printed for centuries in the Roman Missal among the priest's preparation for Mass and assigned to a day…
- Prayer for Ash Wednesday
The Ash Wednesday collect, said every day of Lent in the Book of Common Prayer and closely matched in the Roman Missal. It is prayed at the…
- Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
The Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306–373), prayed with prostrations at nearly every weekday service of Great Lent in the…
- Prayer of St. Gregory of Narek
St. Gregory of Narek (951–1003), an Armenian monk declared a Doctor of the Church in 2015, wrote the Book of Lamentations — ninety-five…
- Psalm 32 — Blessed Is He Whose Transgression Is Forgiven
One of the seven penitential psalms, and St. Augustine's favourite — he had it written on the wall beside his deathbed. It describes the…
- Purification Prayer
A prayer of interior cleansing, prayed after confession or as a daily discipline. Its logic is the standard Catholic teaching that the…
- The Collect for Purity
Translated by Thomas Cranmer for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer from a Latin collect used in the Sarum rite, where the priest prayed it…
- The Confiteor (I Confess)
The Confiteor is the general confession of the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass, in use in some form since the Carolingian era and…
- The Twenty-Four Prayers of St. John Chrysostom
Attributed to St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), these twenty-four petitions are prayed one for each hour of the day and night, and appear…