Penitential Rite, Form C

[CatholicZ09]

When Penitential Rite, Form C, is used, does the priest need to state the invocations (“You were sent to heal the contrite…”), or can he simply say “Lord, have mercy,” “Christ, have mercy,” “Lord, have mercy” without the invocations?

 

[powerofk]

The invocations are part of the Penitential Rite, Form C, though I have often seen priests who appear to believe that the invocations are optional. I’m not a liturgist nor a priest nor deacon, so I’m not exactly sure, but it would seem to me that the invocations are not optional in Form C of the Penitential Rite, as the response “Lord, have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy” is required in all forms of the Penitential Rite (it is the end of both Forms A and B).

 

[Confiteor_Deo]

Form C of the penitential rite should include the invocations. If the priest is only saying the Kýrie eléison, then he should be using form A with the Confiteor or form B prior to saying the Kýrie. I am basing this off of my Novus Ordo missal, and I don’t attend the Novus Ordo anymore, but this is how I remember them doing it.

 

[FrDavid96]

When Penitential Rite, Form C, is used, does the priest need to state the invocations (“You were sent to heal the contrite…”), or can he simply say “Lord, have mercy,” “Christ, have mercy,” “Lord, have mercy” without the invocations?

If Form C is used, the invocations must be used. They are a part of the text. There is no option to omit them. If he omits them, then (by that very fact) he is not using Form C.

 

[FrDavid96]

Just so that readers are informed:

Along with the first 3 options for the Penitential Rite (those that are often labeled forms A, B or C, but not called that in the Roman Missal itself): there are seven additional optional forms for the invocations that have been approved and are in an appendix to the Roman Missal.

To put that another way, we might say that “Form C” has a total of eight possible texts, all of them perfectly licit. The Kyrie alone is not one of those options.

These may be an adaptation peculiar to the United States.

 

[John_Lilburne]

FrDavid96 wrote: “To put that another way, we might say that “Form C” has a total of eight possible texts, all of them perfectly licit.”

The Roman Missal used in Australia also has an Appendix: “Appendix VI Sample Invocations for the Penitential Act”. By using the word “sample” it is clear to me that this is not intended to be all possible texts. These are like examples, others can be composed.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal has in n. 52: “When the Kyrie is sung as a part of the Penitential Act, a ‘trope’ precedes each acclamation.”

I agree that composing nothing, having no ‘trope’, is not an option.