Father Byers’ Act of Contrition: Another Holy Souls Hermitage Special

Both in the Extraordinary and Ordinary Form of the Sacrament of Penance, both back in the day as today, the penitent is quite free to express an act of contrition in the best way he knows how. Not that many make up their own act of contrition, for having heard about a gazillion confessions in my priesthood, I think I can date within a few years when penitents learned their act of contrition for their first Confession, hopefully before their first Holy Communion. However, some do express their sorrow with their own words. Some do this better than others.

Yours truly made up his own act of contrition some 25 years ago, give or take a few days. It’s somewhat similar to the one I learned in the mid-1960s for my first Confession before my first Holy Communion (as I recounted here). I made up this act of contrition during many holy hours before the Most Blessed Sacrament in the now “old”chapel (now reception hall) of the Generalate of the Fathers of Mercy, many decades ago. That act of contrition goes like this:

• Heavenly Father, in the Name of the Son, Jesus, crucified and abandoned, and by the love of the Holy Spirit, I abandon myself to Thee with all of my sins, sorrowfully, begging forgiveness and loving simplicity in Thy sight. Amen.

Short and sweet. After I came up with that, I used it in Confession as well. The first time I did I was reprimanded quite strongly by the priest for not using an act of contrition which had all the required elements necessary for contrition itself. I re-recited my act of contrition, using the one I had memorized from the Baltimore Catechism linked to above (and which I also love). But let’s parse my act of contrition to see if it stands up to a calmer scrutiny. This is, after all, the act of contrition I use for the Emergency Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception:

(1) Heavenly Father…

• This opening immediately places one before God who is both almighty (heavenly) and ever so very personal and familial (our Father). One is put at ease with a two-fold reassurance that God, whom one is addressing, can do what we are going to ask Him regarding forgiveness, and does, in fact, very much care to do what we ask Him about forgiveness. Nothing on earth can replace the security we have with, ever so precisely, our (1) Heavenly (2) Father.

(2) in the Name of the Son, Jesus, crucified and abandoned…

• Doing all this “in the Name…” surely identifies the most tender love of our Heavenly Father as a love by which He sent His only begotten Son among us precisely so that He might hear from Him the following words: “Father, forgive them!” from the Cross. These words also speak to me about the gravity of my own sins, how I’ve crucified the Son of the Living God by my sins, how I’ve run from Calvary, abandoning Him. Jesus’ obedience, His listening to the Father, who, nevertheless, seems to have abandoned Him, is in sharp contrast to my disobedience, my lack of listening. I deserve the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. Jesus’ listening in such conditions, making up for my lack… this, for me, is an occasion to be sorrowful for the sin I’ve committed. I have offended Thee, oh my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. But all this is so far beyond me.  Thus, it is by way of Jesus’ grace, by His friendship He has me in/is drawing me into, or better, it is in His Name that I approach our Heavenly Father.

(3) and by the love of the Holy Spirit…

• The absolution formula for the Ordinary Form of this sacrament begins with these words: “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins…” In other words, it is because Jesus has the right in justice to have mercy on us because of having taken on the consequences of our sins on Himself, that He and the Father send the Holy Spirit to us precisely for this sanctification, the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are not forgiven in a vacuum. Instead, we are filled with sanctifying grace, and, because of that, there is no room for the guilt of sin. That guilt is washed  away in the Blood of the Lamb: “through the death and resurrection of His Son…” So, this mention of the Holy Spirit is an occasion to praise the entire economy of salvation. The Holy Spirit brings us the sanctifying grace of the redemption even while He has us fortified with the humility necessary to bring our sins for forgiveness…

(4) I abandon myself to Thee with all of my sins, sorrowfully…

• This phrase speaks of the eagerness of taking up the grace offered by our Heavenly Father to return to Him through, with and in Jesus, in full trust that Jesus has taken all my sins upon Himself. This, of course, is an occasion to glorify the love God is. Sorrow for sin comes from this love. Sorrow for sin because of love is what is called an act of perfect contrition, as opposed to imperfect, which would deal with the fear of the loss of heaven and the dread of the pains of hell. Perfect trumps imperfect and, in this case, perfect builds on imperfect. Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee.

(5) begging forgiveness…

• Begging forgiveness is exactly, precisely what our Heavenly Father wants us to do. This speaks to who we are before Him, now with the encouragement of His grace: we know that we are sinners, that we are sick, that we need forgiveness, healing. This reminds us what Jesus said about coming for those who are sinners, who need healing. I’m that sinner. I need that healing. Thanks be to God that I have at least some realization of that! Putting ourselves on our knees before Him, by way of His grace, is what this life is all about. We will thank Him forever and ever in Heaven. (I can’t wait to go to heaven!) Now, if this act of contrition is being recited in Confession, it is clear that, since I am there, I have intended to confess my sins in Confession! But if I recite this act of contrition outside of Confession, the intention to confess my sins in sacramental Confession is not thereby excluded… not at all. The other way around: although it is a good and holy thing to pray an act of contrition at any time, the desire to be forgiven is a desire to be absolved by a priest, for we are reconciled very directly in the confessional with God, and — with the priest representing the entire mystical body of Christ by way of his ordination — we are reconciled on a spiritual level with everyone else: the Head and members of the Body of Christ.

(6) and loving simplicity in Thy sight…

• Begging the grace of loving simplicity is the expression of a firm purpose of amendment of life, indeed, of avoiding occasions of sin and all that leads to sin. Begging for this grace speaks to what our Heavenly Father wants for us, which is precisely to be so united with Jesus, His Son, that we remain, in union of love, in His sight. We walk in His presence. We are before Him. With sins forgiven, this is what this sacrament leads us to live, a loving simplicity in the Lord’s presence. This friendship, this sanctifying grace, is what kills us off so that we live only for Him, remaining with Him from one Confession to the next. Confession is about getting us on to heaven. Confession is about becoming saints. All of it is God’s work.

(7) Amen.

• If I’m not in confession and I’m reciting this act of contrition, for instance during the Emergency Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception, the Amen is an emphasis of confirmation of all that is said: “So may it be!” However, if I’m reciting this in Confession, the Amen is also an emphasis of agreement to accomplish the penance given.

But maybe I’m just being reactionary, 25 years later!