Prayer

I was waiting for a funeral mass to begin the other day when my mother leaned over and said did you know they changed all the prayers? And I said no. To which she replied well you better go learn them in case you have to recite them. But I told her I had no intention of learning the new prayers—the old ones were perfectly fine.

Here’s the thing—a prayer is a prayer. It is not the words so much as it is the intention. New prayers are not like the improved version of Cool Whip nor or are they like New Tide with Oxi-clean. Prayer changes do not make them work better—they just make the intention more understandable to the reciter. As long as the intention is pure, the language is inconsequential.

When I lived in Yonkers and attended Christ the King school I learned the act of contrition prayer. When I moved to Dobbs Ferry Sister Grace required me to learn the version of the prayer Sacred Heart School taught. And when my girls learned the act of contrition at Saint Joseph’s School in Garden City I relearned the prayer again---just so I could quiz them . I learned the act of contrition three times but all three times fundamentally the prayer did not change—it can’t. An act of contrition is a constant. Which is why if I were asked to rewrite the prayer it would simply say:

Sorry God. I screwed up. Sin is wrong.  I offended you and others and I deserve consequences. With your grace I promise to do better next time. Please forgive me.

And I can guarantee you if I said that in a confessional booth God would get it, even if the priest did not.