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Prayer After Grievous Sin

Confess wrongdoing and seek the Father’s pardon through Jesus.

Historical edition. Historical claims and instructions are preserved as historical context.

O ALMIGHTY and eternal God, behold I, a miserable, unworthy, and faithless sinner, so often and in such manifold ways a rebel and ungrateful to thee, come unto thee, my Creator and my Redeemer, accusing myself and confessing before thee all my abominations and many crimes. In the spirit of humiliation and with truly contrite heart I confess before thee that I have many times blasphemed thy holy Name, and transgressed thy just commandments, and set at naught thy will, and rendered vain all thy gifts and all thy work within me, and polluted my whole soul and my body, and perverted to thy dishonour thy graces and thy benefits, and offended thee in numberless ways by my sins and my iniquities. And, alas, I have too long and too stubbornly continued in these most grievous and heinous sins, in this malice and perfidy, abusing thy tenderness, leading my heart astray, and defiling all my soul. And I have not only drawn away from thee my own soul, but many other souls which thou hast purchased with thy most Precious Blood, and which I have led from thee by evil example and persuasion, and given over to the devil to be slain. Behold, O Lord my God, thy wicked enemy lies prostrate at thy feet; behold in thy power this perverse and recreant sinner, who of his own accord gives himself up unto thee. Do with me whatsoever seemeth good to thee; for with resolved will I submit myself to the rigour of thy justice, prepared to endure whatever vengeance thou willest to exact from me; only, do thou show thy mercy on me, and receive me into thy favour. For art thou not my Father, whose compassion knoweth no bounds, whose loving-kindnesses are infinite? And although I have rendered myself unworthy to be called thy son, yet do I acknowledge no other Father than thee alone. Wherefore I cast myself at the feet of thy mercy, and implore thee, by thine omnipotence, by thy wisdom and thy goodness, to pardon and forgive my most grievous sins. Receive me now once more to thy favour, O thou sweet Jesus, Son of the living God, who art appointed our advocate, the one mediator between us and thy Father. I beseech thee by that charity which drew thee down from heaven into the Virgin's womb, and constrained thee thence to the passion and ignominy of the Cross; I beseech thee by all the scorn and insult heaped upon thee, by each one of the drops of thy most precious Blood shed for us; obtain for me the pardon of all my sins, and reconcile me fully with thy Father. Amen.