The Act of Contrition

A traditional Catholic prayer

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

In Latin

Deus meus, ex toto corde paenitet me omnium meorum peccatorum, eaque detestor, quia peccando, non solum poenas a te iuste statutas promeritus sum, sed praesertim quia offendi te, summum bonum, ac dignum qui super omnia diligaris. Ideo firmiter propono, adiuvante tua gratia, de cetero me non peccaturum peccandique occasiones proximas fugiturum. Amen.

Where it comes from

The son has come home barefoot, one sandal off, his head shaven, and kneels with his face buried against his father, who bends over him and lays both hands on his back. Saint Luke gives the words he had made ready, below: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. The Council of Trent defined contrition as “a sorrow of soul and a hatred of sin committed, with a firm purpose of not sinning in the future.” That is the son's whole road home in a single sentence. The Church distinguishes perfect contrition, which rises from the love of God who has been grievously offended, from imperfect contrition, which arises from other motives such as the loss of heaven or the fear of hell; the prayer names the one and ends on the other, and turns neither the frightened nor the loving away. Catholic writers, the Encyclopedia notes, have always taught that contrition is necessary for the forgiveness of sin. In the Gospel the son had a longer speech ready, and the father does not wait for the end of it, nor for the end of ours.

Edward Hanna, “Contrition”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (1908): newadvent.org

²¹And the son said to him: Father: I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am not now worthy to be called thy son.

¹⁹A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Luke 15:21 · Psalms 50:19, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

More in painting

The traditional prayers  ·  The Rosary