The Act of Contrition
The prayer of sorrow you make in the confessional — the traditional words, and what each line is actually saying.
It is the one prayer a Catholic must be able to find when it matters most: kneeling in the confessional, or at a deathbed, or alone after a fall. The Act of Contrition is the soul telling God it is sorry — and meaning it enough to change. Here is the traditional form, word for word, and what it is really saying.
The Act of Contrition
The traditional form
A short form
When to pray it
Pray it in Confession — after telling your sins, when the priest asks for your act of contrition, before he gives absolution. But it does not belong only to the confessional: pray it each night as part of an examination of conscience, and the moment you are aware of having sinned. To prepare for confession itself, use the free Examination of Conscience.
Perfect and imperfect contrition
The prayer names both motives the Church distinguishes. Sorrow that arises chiefly from fear — "I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell" — is imperfect contrition (attrition), and it is genuinely sufficient for the Sacrament of Penance. Sorrow that arises from love — "most of all because they offend Thee… deserving of all my love" — is perfect contrition, which, joined to the firm intention to confess, reconciles a soul to God even before reaching a priest (cf. Catechism §§1451–1453). The decisive line is the last: a real purpose of amendment — "to amend my life." Without the resolve to change, the words are only words.