Traditional prayer
The Act of Contrition
O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee,
and I detest all my sins,
because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell,
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God,
who art all-good and deserving 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.
About this prayer
This is the Act of Contrition as the catechism of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore printed it in 1885. It moves in four steps: sorrow; the lesser motive, the fear of losing heaven; the greater motive, love of God who is all-good; and a resolution to confess, to do penance and to amend. Learn it in those four pieces and it is yours for life.
The same catechism defines contrition as “a hatred of sin and a true grief of the soul for having offended God, with a firm purpose of sinning no more” (Q. 195). It asks that sorrow be interior, supernatural, universal and sovereign: from the heart and not merely the lips, prompted by grace, for every mortal sin, and greater than our grief over any other evil (QQ. 196–200).
Sorrow that rises from love of God is perfect contrition; sorrow that rises from fear of losing heaven, or from the ugliness of sin, is imperfect (Baltimore QQ. 202–204). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that imperfect contrition is still a gift of God and disposes the soul to receive forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance (CCC 1453). Through perfect contrition God forgives venial sins; He forgives even mortal sins when that sorrow carries a firm resolve to confess them at the first opportunity (CCC 1452). It is the prayer on the way to the priest, never a reason to stay away from him. Nor does it open the way to Holy Communion: anyone aware of mortal sin must not receive Communion before sacramental absolution, however deep the sorrow, unless there is a grave reason and no way to go to confession (CCC 1457).
Other wordings are in use, including the forms of the present rite of Penance. What makes any of them an act of contrition is the thing itself: real sorrow for sin, a turning away from it, and the resolve to sin no more (CCC 1451). This page keeps the 1885 text because it is the wording the Baltimore Catechism taught, and it is free for any family to print.
Scripture gives the heart of it: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 50:19, Douay-Rheims; Psalm 51 in modern Bibles). And the son who came home: “I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee” (Luke 15:18).
When to pray it
- In confession, after you have told your sins, when the priest invites your act of contrition.
- Every night, at the end of an examination of conscience.
- The moment you know you have sinned: in the car, at the sink, before sleep.
- In danger of death, with the resolve to confess as soon as you can (CCC 1452).
- With children at bedtime, one line a night until the whole prayer is theirs.