Christian Pure

Prayers After Sinning: Confession, Forgiveness and Strength Against Sin

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • The shortest prayer of confession in the Gospels is the tax collector’s “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
  • Traditional prayers of confession are quoted from Psalm 51, the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (the General Confession, the Ash Wednesday collect and the Litany), the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers (the Act of Contrition and the prayer against pride) and Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book.
  • Short prayers cover the first moment after sin, shame, hidden sins, hurting someone, repeated sin, temptation, the tongue, a new beginning and thanks for forgiveness.
  • Moses, Daniel and Jesus all prayed for the sins of other people (Exodus 32:31–32; Daniel 9:19; Luke 23:34).
  • Catholics must confess serious sins to a priest at least once a year (Catechism, paragraph 1457); Orthodox Christians also confess to a priest; most Protestants confess directly to God and to one another (James 5:16).

After a sin, the first prayer can be seven words long. The tax collector in Jesus’ parable prayed them, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and Jesus said that man “went down to his house justified” (Luke 18:13–14). The Psalms and the old prayer books add longer confessions. How to pray after you have sinned The prayers of confession in the Bible follow a simple order. Name the sin to God. “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Exodus 32:31–32; Psalm 19:12; 32:1, 5; 51:1–4, 17; 103:12; 139:23–24; Proverbs 28:13; Isaiah 1:18; Lamentations 3:22–23; Ezekiel 36:26; Daniel 9:19; Matthew 5:23–24; Luke 18:13–14; 23:34; Romans 7:19; 8:1; Ephesians 4:29; James 4:7; 5:16; 1 John 1:9; 2:1; 5:16). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
  • The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, Psalm 50 (51), title. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
  • The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, “A General Confession” and the Declaration of Absolution, p. 6; The Litany, p. 54; Collect for Ash Wednesday, p. 124. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
  • A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Morning Prayers, “An Act of Contrition,” p. 54; Thanksgiving after Confession, “Against Pride,” p. 295. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
  • Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, p. 41; The Rite of Confession, p. 289. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1456–1457. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4D.HTM
  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
  • Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

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