Act of Contrition

Growing up in a Roman Catholic household, we were taught certain prayers. I can remember memorizing the 'Act of Contrition', which was said during your confession to a priest.

Ok, hang on a minute because I'm getting flashbacks of the creepiness when you had to go into the dark closet and wait for a man to slide open the screened window so you could tell him how horribly bad you'd been, and he could judge you and give you penance.

Dramatization:

Priest ~ "Go say a bazillion Hail Marys, and a gazillion Our Fathers, and a couple of Apostle's Creeds, you bad, bad person you. I'm ready to judge the next poor idiot, so send them in on your way out. Go on, get outta here, I mean it."

Seriously, that's all it ever was for me, and from the look of things, that's all it is for most Catholic people. Someone says 'do this', and you do it, and believe that it will make you right with God. You really don't have to understand, nor feel, nor agree with what you're saying, you just have to do it.

So, I was thinking about the 'Act of Contrition' prayer, and how you had to say it at some point in the confessional ritual. Things have changed a lot since I was little, and in looking online I found the prayer almost identical to my memorized prayer, except the one I remember had Thee and Thy instead of you and your. I have to say, that should one actually mean what this prayer expresses, it's really not a bad prayer to use to model your confessional prayers to God. Not to be repeated, but as a model, like the Lord's Prayer is a model of how to pray to the Father.

Here it is, as I remember it:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin.

Now, if the Roman Catholic people actually were given a new life and the gift of faith and repentance; they would know that this prayer is not just a mantra; it's the root of how a repentant heart longs not to offend God. They would also know that they are unable, without grace, to avoid sin. Oh yeah, and they'd run out of that church ASAP.

But they really don't have to avoid sin. They just confess it, pay their prayer price, and move on.

It's odd to me to think about how the Jewish people had the Son of God in their midst, and yet didn't recognize Him. It's odd to think how the Roman Catholics have the bible right in their hand, and can't recognize that Christ is no longer nailed to a cross, and that a mere man cannot forgive them their sins. It's that mixing of truth and lie that fools 'em every time.

I pray that He shall never again allow me to be so deceived. Amen.