Sunday, August 02, 2009

Sacrament of Penance: Prayer of Absolution

This is a bit out of order — I plan on doing a post (or series of posts) comparing the Extraordinary Form of the Sacrament of Penance with the Ordinary Form — but I thought I'd share this little tidbit with you ahead of time.

This is the prayer of absolution from the Sacrament of Penance (also called Confession and Reconciliation) in English and Latin (and my own attempt at a Latin translation), with Scriptural annotations.
(2 Cor. 1:3)God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and resurrection of His Son
(2 Cor. 5:19; cf. Rom. 11:15; Col.1:20)has reconciled the world to Himself
(John 20:21-23)and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins;
(2 Cor. 5:18-20)through the ministry of the Church
(Luke 7:50; Col. 1:14)may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, +
and of the Holy Spirit
.

Deus, Pater misericordiárum,
qui per mortem et resurrectiónem Filii sui
mundum sibi reconciliávit
et Spiritum Sanctum effúdit in remissiónem peccatórum,
per ministérium Ecclésiæ
indulgéntiam tibi tribuat et pacem.
Et ego te absólvo a peccátis tuis
in nómine Patris, et Filii, +
et Spíritus Sancti
.
Here's my translation of the Latin, not so much to be compared and contrasted with the present English translation, but simply as an exercise in translation.
May God, the Father of mercies,
Who through the death and resurrection of His Son
has reconciled the world to Himself
and sent the Holy Spirit for the remission of sins,
through the ministry of Church
grant you pardon and peace.
And I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, +
and of the Holy Spirit.

2 response:

Anonymous said...

You should change it to God absolves your sins, because last I checked only God can forgive your sins, not a priest.

Jeffrey Pinyan said...

On the contrary, God has given the power to forgive sins to all of us, to some degree.

1. Do we not pray in the "Our Father" that God would forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors? (Mt 6:12)

2. Jesus appears to have appealed to His humanity in His exercising of the forgiving of sins, when He said "the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins." (Mk 2:10)

3. Jesus breathed on His apostles with the Holy Spirit and gave them power to forgive people of their sins, or to retain them. (Jn 20:23)