The Confiteor was traditionally said at the beginning of the Divine Service and in Compline, but in current Lutheran use the text appears only in Compline; since the time of the Reformation, other prayers of Confession have come into use at the Divine Service. In Lutheran use, the prayer's traditional invocation of the Blessed Virgin, the Archangel Michael, and others have been removed, while the notion of confessing in their presence is maintained: "before the whole company of heaven."Liturgist:
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Silence for self-examination
I confess to God Almighty,
before the whole company of
heaven and to you, my brothers
and sisters, that I have sinned in
thought, word, and deed by my
fault, by my own fault, by my
own most grievous fault;
wherefore I pray God Almighty
to have mercy on me, forgive
me all my sins, and bring me to
everlasting life. Amen.
Congregation:
The almighty and merciful
Lord grant you pardon,
forgiveness, and remission of all
your sins. Amen.
Congregation:
I confess to God Almighty,
before the whole company of
heaven and to you, my brothers
and sisters, that I have sinned in
thought, word, and deed by my
fault, by my own fault, by my
own most grievous fault;
wherefore I pray God Almighty
to have mercy on me, forgive
me all my sins, and bring me to
everlasting life. Amen.
Liturgist:
The almighty and merciful
Lord grant you pardon,
forgiveness, and remission of all
your sins.
Congregation:
Amen.
--Compline: Prayer at the Close of the Day, LSB p. 254
In what orders was this present before the Divine Service?
ReplyDeleteIn the Western Mass pre-Reformation.
ReplyDeleteAh - okay - so was this something that had fallen out of usage by the time of the Reformation, or was this the custom up unto the Reformation? This is interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteNo, it continued up to and beyond the Reformation in Roman use. It was said privately by the priest and his fellow servers at the foot of the altar, however, rather than being part of the people's liturgy per se.
ReplyDeleteThis particular confession is unique in that the congregation hears the confession of the liturgist. The congregants do not absolve him, though, rather they ask God's forgiveness on his behalf. Similarly, the liturgist does not absolve the congregation either.
ReplyDeleteAccording to LSB, this is strictly a confession, whereas the Divine Service has confession and absolution.
I get the historical application, here, but I am used to hearing words similar to, "in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ..."
Might the full absolution have come about with the decline of private confession?
Just wondering...
Not all Lutheran absolutions used the "ego te absolvo" form; nor was it invariably used in private confession in Lutheran circles. The particular form of absolution to which you refer is first witnessed, I believe, in the Saxon 1580 order. That same order, however, did not give that absolution for private confession. It gave another longer, and even more beautiful one:
ReplyDeleteThe almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would be gracious and merciful to you. He wants to forgive you all your sins, and this because his dear Son Jesus Christ has suffered for them and died for them. In the name of that same Jesus Christ, because he has mandated me to do this, in the power of his words where he said: 'Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven,' I say to you that all your sins are forgiven. They cannot hold you captive. They are altogether forgiven you as abundantly and completely as was won for you by Jesus Christ through his suffering and death, and which he commanded to be proclaimed in all the world through the Gospel, and this is now said to you, to comfort and strengthen you, as I now speak this to you in the name of the Lord Christ, for you to receive it gladly, setting your conscience at peace, as with a faith that cannot be shaken, your sins are surely forgiven you, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Go forth in peace."
I like it! Especially, I like the thorough detail on the authority to forgive sins.
ReplyDeleteAh, thank you for that clarification -- I think of things in terms of the "people's" liturgy - and I hadn't known of a confession being used towards the people in a DS that early.
ReplyDeleteHaving been one of the "fellow servers" for some years, may I add a little clarification.
ReplyDeleteIn the Selbstverstaendnis of the preconciliar Roman rite, these prayers were not private. We altar boys were told to learn the Confiteor particularly well and understand every word, since we will be speaking these words on behalf of the congregation, who in turn will be following them in their missals with us as their voice.
In no way was it understood as equivalent to the Sacrament of Penance, which the faithful were counselled to use every Saturday before Communion on Sunday.
Nobody absolves anybody in these prayers. The prayer that God may forgive one is exactly the same as said by the servers to the priest, and as said by the priest to the servers (except of course the singular, misereatur tui, for us, and the plural miseratur vestri for the priest to us).
After this, the priest prays another prayer (Indulgentiam etc) that the Lord may grant us all pardon, absolution and remission of our sins.
It is here that the gravest defect of the Roman rite -- which remains intact in the novus ordo -- is found.
Mary, Michael, John the Baptist etc, are not invoked in the least, they are named from among the brothers and sisters then named collectively. No problem.
But, precisely where the Common Service cleanly and clearly proclaims and announces the forgiveness and pardon that God HAS granted us upon repentance, the Roman rite prays that it MAY be so, once again retreating from the Good News. Big problem.
From my earliest days as a Lutheran, even still adjusting to what then seemed such a reductive approach with Verba only (which I now treasure), this magnificent change from a prayer that he may to an announcement that he has struck me forcefully and does to this day as one of the many ways in which the church and its liturgy has truly been reformed and conformed to the Gospel among us (that is when we use the liturgy, and then the real one not the Vatican II For Lutherans one).
St. Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter, which is used by Western Rite Antiochian Orthodox, also has this same prayer for Compline and the mentioning of the Theotokos, the archangels and John the Baptist are NOT intercessory; we confess and acknowledge our sinfulness before the entire host both on earth and heaven where they meet, mystically and physically, in the Church. Our sins are not hidden from them just as they are not hidden from our neighbour in the next pew.
ReplyDeleteAre all mentions of the saints now anathema in the LCMS even when they are not invoked as intercessors? Romaphobia gone overboard, imho.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhy would you ask a question that you know implies something false? No, the mention of the saints is not forbidden in the LCMS; invoking them has always been.
In true Vatican II style, the prayer of confession at Compline is offered in two versions in LSB, the one quoted above on the left. I much prefer the one on the right. It's quite clear about the fact of Christ's action for us, that lack of which clarity being my objection to the Roman version whether one names certain of the brothers and sisters in the heavenly company or not.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's more Romaphilia than Romaphobia -- the Rome from the 1960s.
Thank you very much for direction my attention to the confiteor in LSB Compline. I remember it from seminary but, through non-use, had forgotten it. Your reference has re-connected me from this most powerful confession of sins, thus my gratitude. Even though I am retired from active pulpit ministry I have greater need than ever to seek the Lord's forgiveness.
ReplyDelete