Prayer for Forgiveness
Forgiveness moves in two directions, and prayer holds both. There is the mercy we need from God when we have sinned, and there is the mercy we are asked to extend to those who have hurt us. The prayers below cover both, with the full traditional texts. They are for the person kneeling under the weight of something they did, and for the person trying to release a wound they did not choose.
The tradition never pretends this is easy. It teaches that God's forgiveness is freely given and that ours toward others is a grace we have to ask for, sometimes many times. Both begin the same way: with the truth, spoken plainly to God.
A Prayer Asking God's Forgiveness
A short, honest prayer for the moment you know you have done wrong and want to come back.
Lord, I have sinned against you, and I will not hide it or make it smaller than it is. I am sorry for what I have done and for the good I failed to do. Have mercy on me. Wash away what I cannot undo, and make my heart new. Give me the grace to turn away from this and to begin again. I trust in your mercy, which is greater than my sin. Amen.
Notice that the prayer does not stop at feeling sorry. It asks for the grace to change. In the tradition, true contrition always carries the resolve to turn away from the sin, not just regret at having committed it.
The Act of Contrition
This is the classic Catholic prayer of sorrow for sin, prayed for centuries and especially within the sacrament of Confession. It holds both the sorrow and the resolve to change in a few lines.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
The heart of the prayer is its reason for sorrow: not mainly fear of punishment, but grief at having wounded a God who is good. This is what the tradition calls perfect contrition, and it is the disposition that opens the soul to mercy.
Psalm 51 — Have Mercy on Me, O God
The Miserere is the great penitential psalm, King David's prayer after his sin, and the prayer the Church has returned to in repentance for three thousand years. No one has said sorrow to God better.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
The psalm asks for more than a clean slate. It asks God to create a clean heart, using the same word Genesis uses for making the world. Forgiveness, in this psalm, is not only debts erased. It is a person made new.
A Prayer to Forgive Someone Who Hurt You
This is the harder half of forgiveness. Christ ties the two together in the Our Father: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." But the tradition is honest that forgiving a real wound is not a feeling you can summon. It is a grace you ask for, often more than once.
Lord, you know what was done to me, and you know that I cannot let it go by my own strength. I do not yet feel forgiveness, and I will not pretend that I do. But I am willing to want it. Give me the grace to release this person into your hands, and to stop carrying what is not mine to carry. Heal the wound where it is still open. As you have forgiven me, help me to forgive. Amen.
The prayer does not command a feeling. It offers willingness and asks God for the rest. The tradition teaches that this is enough to begin, and that a heart which keeps praying to forgive is already forgiving, even when the wound still aches.
The Jesus Prayer
When words run out, the Church has one line that carries everything. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." It comes from the Desert Fathers and the Eastern monks, prayed on the breath until it prays itself, and it belongs naturally to the Maronite tradition with its deep roots in the same monastic East.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
Repeat it slowly, once for each breath. It is a full prayer of forgiveness in nine words: it names the Lord, confesses the sin, and asks for mercy, all at once. For more on this way of praying, see the tradition of the Jesus Prayer in the prayer for anxiety.
A Prayer Through the Intercession of Saint Charbel
The hermit of Annaya lived a life of penance and silence, and pilgrims still bring their burdens of conscience to his tomb. The Maronite tradition he belonged to has always held penance close, treating sorrow for sin not as gloom but as the doorway back to God.
Saint Charbel, who left everything to seek God in silence and penance, intercede for me now. Ask the Lord to grant me true sorrow for my sins and the grace of a new beginning. Where my heart is hard, soften it. Where I hold a grudge, help me to lay it down. Lead me to the mercy you sought all your life, and pray that I may not fear to come home. Amen.
Many pray this together with the prayer for healing, asking for the healing of the soul and of old wounds at once.
Reconciliation in the Catholic and Maronite Tradition
Alongside private prayer, the Church offers the sacrament of Reconciliation, also called Confession. Here the penitent names their sins aloud to a priest and hears, in the words of absolution, that they are forgiven. For many, hearing the forgiveness spoken makes it real in a way private prayer alone does not.
In the Maronite Church, this same mercy is prayed in an ancient Syriac spirit of repentance, the sorrow of the heart that the Fathers called compunction. It is never sorrow without hope. The whole point of naming the sin is to be free of it.
Forgiving others, meanwhile, is usually a process rather than a single act. You may forgive the same wound many times as it surfaces again. This is not failure. It is how a deep hurt heals, in layers, each one handed back to God. If grief is tangled with the hurt, the prayer for grief may help you carry both.
Scripture on Forgiveness
When your own words fail, Scripture gives you the promises the Church has trusted for millennia. Pray one verse slowly and let it stay with you through the day.
1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Psalm 103:12
"As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
Matthew 6:14-15
"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Colossians 3:13
"Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
Ephesians 4:32
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Matthew 18:21-22
"Then Peter came up and said to him, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.'"
A Note on Forgiveness and Safety
Forgiving someone does not mean pretending nothing happened, nor does it require returning to a situation that is harming you. The Church has never taught that mercy means placing yourself back in danger. You can forgive from the heart and still keep a wise distance. Seeking safety, counsel, or help is not a failure to forgive. It is often the ground on which real forgiveness becomes possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good prayer for forgiveness?
A short, honest prayer is enough: "Lord, I have sinned against you. Have mercy on me, and make my heart new." The Church also gives us the Act of Contrition and Psalm 51 ("Have mercy on me, O God"). What matters is not the length of the words but the truth of the sorrow behind them and the resolve to change.
What is the Act of Contrition?
The Act of Contrition is the traditional Catholic prayer of sorrow for sin, prayed especially in the sacrament of Confession. It begins, "O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins," and ends with a firm resolve, "with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin." It expresses both sorrow and the intention to change.
What Psalm is about forgiveness?
Psalm 51, the Miserere, is the great psalm of forgiveness: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. Create in me a clean heart, O God." It is King David's prayer of repentance after his sin, and the Church has prayed it in penance for three thousand years. Psalm 103 ("as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us") is also prayed for mercy.
How do I pray to forgive someone who hurt me?
Begin by telling God the truth about the wound, without pretending it did not happen. Then ask, not to feel differently at once, but for the grace to want to forgive: "Lord, I cannot do this on my own. Give me the grace to release this person as you have released me." Forgiving those who hurt us is usually a process prayed many times, not a single act, and God gives the grace to those who keep asking.
Does God forgive all sins?
The Church teaches that there is no sin God will not forgive to a person who is truly sorry and turns back to him. Scripture says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). The one sin that cannot be forgiven is the refusal to ask, the hardened heart that will not turn to the mercy that is always offered.
See also: Prayer for Grief. Prayer for Anxiety. Prayer for Strength. Catholic Morning Prayers. Saint Charbel. Prayer for Healing.