Catholic Prayers for Forgiveness

For when you know you have done wrong and want to come back to God. It borrows from Psalm 51 and from the tax collector in the Temple who could only say “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). Name the sin to God plainly; you do not have to explain it.

The Church’s prayer of sorrow for sin, said in confession and, traditionally, every night. This is the form most English-speaking Catholics learned:

It depends on the sin. For everyday sins, which the Church calls venial, sincere sorrow and prayer are enough. The Our Father, Scripture, acts of charity and every sincere act of repentance contribute to the forgiveness of sins (CCC 1434–1437), and the Eucharist wipes away venial sins (CCC 1394). Confessing them is not required, though the Church strongly recommends it (CCC 1458).

For mortal sin, grave matter committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent (CCC 1857), the ordinary way of forgiveness is the sacrament. Individual confession and absolution “remain the only ordinary way” to be reconciled with God and the Church, unless that is physically or morally impossible (CCC 1484). Only God forgives sins, and Christ gave his apostles the power to forgive in his name (CCC 1441–1442).

A prayer does not replace confession for mortal sin, but it is not wasted. Perfect contrition, sorrow out of love of God, obtains forgiveness even of mortal sin if it includes the firm resolution to go to confession as soon as possible (CCC 1452). So if you are conscious of grave sin tonight and cannot see a priest until Saturday, pray the Act of Contrition, mean it, and go on Saturday. Until you are absolved, do not receive Communion unless there is a grave reason and no way to confess first (CCC 1457).

For when you want to forgive but cannot feel it yet. Catholic forgiveness is first a decision, not a feeling: to stop wishing the other person harm, to give up revenge, and to hand the debt to God. The Catechism admits that “it is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense”, but says a heart offered to the Holy Spirit can turn the hurt into intercession (CCC 2843). Say their name where the prayer has “N.”

If someone has abused you, is hurting you now, or has harmed a child, read this before any prayer on this page. Forgiveness is often preached in a way that keeps people in danger, and that is not what the Church teaches.

“Forgiving yourself” is not a phrase from Scripture or the Catechism. In Catholic terms the real question is whether you will accept a forgiveness God has already offered. Refusing to believe you can be forgiven is not humility; the Church calls it despair, a sin against hope (CCC 2091).

Matthew gives the Our Father’s petition as “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), and it is the one petition Jesus comes straight back to: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14–15).

The Catechism calls this petition “astonishing”, because its two halves are joined by the single word “as” (CCC 2838). It is not that God rations his mercy: a heart closed against a brother or sister is closed to the Father’s mercy too (CCC 2840). Doing this on our own is impossible, and possible with God (CCC 2841–2842), and there is no limit or measure to it (CCC 2845). There is a line-by-line way of praying it in the Lord’s Prayer prayed slowly.

The passages Catholics turn to most, quoted in the World English Bible, Catholic Edition.

The sacrament of Penance is where God’s forgiveness is given. Each of its names says something true: the sacrament of conversion, of Penance, of confession, of forgiveness, because through the priest’s absolution God grants “pardon and peace”, and of Reconciliation (CCC 1423–1424). Those who receive it are pardoned by God and reconciled with the Church their sin has wounded (CCC 1422), and it is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience (CCC 1468). Even humanly, saying your sins aloud frees us and makes a new future possible (CCC 1455).

The one thing that blocks forgiveness is refusing it. There are no limits to the mercy of God, but someone who deliberately refuses to repent rejects the forgiveness offered (CCC 1864). That is the “unforgivable sin”, and confessors often point out that being afraid you have committed it is a sign you have not.