No letters were printed this week; here is the letter from last week:

Prayer shows we stand together, as one Church, in humility, reader says

“Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault … .”

There is a scene in the movie Father Stu where, attending his first Mass as a non-Catholic, Stu watches the man sitting next to him beat his breast, as our Catholic practice dictates, during the Confiteor prayer, the penitential rite near the beginning of Mass. “That’s a bit dramatic!” he exclaims, which gets laughs from the theater audience.

I suppose anyone attending a Mass for the first time might think along the same lines, or inwardly question the need for such gestures.

For me, they are changing life. Each of the three strikes of the breast is a humbling before our triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are no excuses, no justifications to hide behind as we face the totality of our nakedness before a holy God. Our flesh is subdued as we confess all that we have done or left undone. We stand together, as one Church, in humility.

This is why the beating of the breast is one of my favorite traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.

- Gayle Griffiths | Aurora