Prayers for forgiveness

Prayers of confession, contrition, and the asking of mercy.

The asking of forgiveness is one of the four oldest categories of Christian prayer, alongside praise, thanksgiving, and petition. The prayers gathered here are for the asking of God's forgiveness and for the grace to forgive others. They include the seven traditional Penitential Psalms, the great corporate confessions of the Catholic Mass and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the Act of Contrition used in Catholic confession, and the Prayer of Ephrem said throughout Orthodox Lent. The Christian tradition is unanimous that forgiveness, both given and received, is among the hardest things asked of a person, and that the asking of grace for it is itself a form of prayer.