Prayers of Penitence

In the Prayer Book the Ten Commandments are recited next, and to each one the people reply with the words beginning, “Lord have mercy …”.  In most churches the Ten Commandments are left out and the priest invites the people to a general confession of sins.  In a general confession we silently call to mind our own particular sins but we confess together out loud in general terms that we have sinned, without mentioning any particular sins.

The Prayers of Penitence may involve saying or singing the words Lord have mercy, either in English or Greek – Kyrie eleison.  Kyrie comes from Kurios, the Greek word for Lord.  We get the word church from it, meaning the Lord’s House.  Eleison means ‘have mercy’. 

We start with the Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy, repeated three times.  This is addressed to God the Father.  Then follows Christe eleison, Christ have mercy, also repeated three times but addressed to God the Son.  And lastly Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy, again three times over, only this time addressed to God the Holy Spirit.  So in all there are nine, three times three. 

You may be surprised to find Greek in the Eucharist, but the Kyries, as we call them, go back to the very early days of Christianity when Greek was the ordinary, everyday language.  And we use them now in the form in which St Augustine of Canterbury brought them to this country about the year 600 AD.  So the Kyries are a prayer to the Blessed Trinity and they express at the beginning of the Eucharist our unworthiness and our need of God’s mercy.

The Gloria

For many hundreds of years the Kyries used to be followed by the Gloria, “Glory be to God on high”.  Thus the people turned from their own unworthiness to the glory and praise of God.  The Gloria was moved to the end of the service in the Prayer Book of 1552, but in most churches it is now sung in its original place at the beginning.  The Gloria is left out in the solemn seasons of Advent and Lent.

The Collect

Next comes the Collect, which sums up the Church’s prayers for the particular day and so varies according to the feasts and seasons of the Church’s year.  It ‘collects’ our thoughts for the day.