Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti

Said at the beginning of Mass and as a preparation for Confession.

The Confiteor (‘I confess’) is one of the oldest penitential prayers of the Catholic Church. It is prayed at the beginning of the Mass in the Penitential Act and as a preparation for the Sacrament of Confession, acknowledging sin before God and the communion of saints.

The Prayer

I confess to Almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and 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.

About This Prayer

The threefold ‘through my fault’ (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) is accompanied by striking the breast — a gesture of contrition. The prayer acknowledges sin of both commission (‘what I have done’) and omission (‘what I have failed to do’), and invokes the intercession of Mary and all the saints.