Confiteor 是拉丁语忏悔的意思,英文就是confession,是天主教弥撒开始由神父同教堂里的众信徒一起朗诵的第一个祷文。个别新教教派,如Lutheran 和某些Anglican (在美称Episcopalian) 派也有以朗颂confiteor 开始礼拜的传统。
弥撒礼拜念Confiteor 是很古老的传统,至少一千年以上。现今弥撒最正统的confiteor 自然是天主教廷认可的拉丁语版本:
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti,
et vobis fratres,
quia peccavi nimis
cogitatione, verbo,
opere et omissione:
mea maxima culpa.
Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem,
omnes Angelos et Sanctos,
et vos, fratres,
orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum.
用英文讲就是:
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.
当然也有中文的confiteor 了,但本人没有考察过。不知道为什么,读到confiteor,如果一定让我用中文来思维,我会想起唐朝时期开始传出的《华严经》忏悔文:
往昔所造诸恶业,
皆由无始贪嗔痴,
从身语意之所生,
一切我今皆忏悔。
罪性本空由心造,
心若灭时罪亦亡,
罪亡心灭两俱空,
是则名为真忏悔。
这段佛教的忏悔文与基督教的confiteor 应有差不多的历史。个人认为也有异曲同工之妙。