Miserere

The real virus is sin and the only vaccine is our Lord’s cross. Through the cross the Lord saves us from sin and death. The Lord doesn’t leave us to sin, to blindness, to unfreedom. He uncovers our guilt so that we can return to him in sorrow for our sins and ask for forgiveness. Let us then ask the Lord for the grace to know one’s real situation before Him, so that we may feel sorry for our sins and be moved to conversion.

It is said that Psalm 51 (called Miserere for it opens with Have mercy) is David’s act of contrition after prophet Nathan opened his eyes to his sins:

Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;

in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions...

Against you, you alone have I sinned;

I have done what is evil in your eyes

So that you are just in your word,

and without reproach in your judgment...

Do not drive me from before your face,

nor take from me your holy spirit.

Restore to me the gladness of your salvation;

uphold me with a willing spirit...

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.

To make this prayer your own particularly in this season of Lent, it might help to read meditatively the story of the evil that David did before the Lord and how the Lord brought him to his senses (2 Sam 11 and 2 Sam 12:1-7). How has the Lord confronted you with your sinfulness?

When we hurt someone we say sorry. And we can show this in various ways. In the Church the traditional ways to show penance are through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. But, of course, it is not limited to these. What appropriate exterior penance can best express your interior penance?

In this light one can see why in the season of Lent the Church recommends the examination of conscience, acts of penance, and the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As you know the pandemic has affected our celebration of the sacraments. In regard to Confession, this is what the Apostolic Penitentiary said last year:

Where the individual faithful find themselves in the painful impossibility of receiving sacramental absolution, it should be remembered that perfect contrition, coming from the love of God, beloved above all things, expressed by a sincere request for forgiveness (that which the penitent is at present able to express) and accompanied by votum confessionis, that is, by the firm resolution to have recourse, as soon as possible, to sacramental confession, obtains forgiveness of sins, even mortal ones (cf. CCC, no. 1452).

Stating that in this current pandemic when it is impossible to go to a priest for confession, the penitent’s perfect contrition does obtain for him forgiveness of sins, even the serious ones. This underscores how vital it is to beg the Lord that we may come to know our sins and to be sorry for them. And this in itself is already the work of God’s grace of forgiveness even if momentarily there’s no priest to hear our confession, absolve our sins, and give penance for them.

Receiving the grace of interior penance, we can then say the Miserere or this Act of Contrition:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You. And I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because I have offended You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.