There was a whole thread on this a while ago, and a clarification in Notitiae said that the rubrics mean that we should strike our breast only once, but let me tell you: I took a look around during Mass, and found that everyone who did this gesture struck his or her breast three times, and I mean everyone including the clergy, so I decided that since it is not disobedient or contrary to rubrics, that this is a truly organic change in the liturgy that may well inform the next edition of the missal, so now I strike my breast three times.
Since I am in the choir, and I do not use a music stand, I am often holding a hymnal or a notebook with music in it, so that limits my hand gestures. But for much of the time I am empty-handed, so I take a cue from my altar server training and hold my hands joined in front of me. I am not as strict about it as when altar serving, but to me it feels better than hands at my sides, and I feel it is a suitable gesture for laity overall.
Actually in the EF the rubrics call for striking the beast each time “mea culpa” is said, so when the old OF translation was used and “though my fault” was said only once, many were confused whether to strike once or 3x. Now with the return of the thricely said “through my fault” many are again striking their breasts 3x.
Not so much innovation or organic development as sheer confusion…
The
ruling given in 1978 in
Notitiae was this:
The words
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa which are found in the Confiteor are introduced in the restored Roman Missal by a rubric of this sort:
All likewise … striking their breast, say … (OM, n. 3). In the former Missal, in the same place, the rubric sounded like this:* He strikes his breast three times*. It does not seem, therefore, that anyone has to strike his breast three times in pronouncing those words in Latin or in another language, even if
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa is said. It suffices that there be a striking of the breast.
It is obvious also that only one gesture suffices in those languages in which the words for showing one’s fault have been rendered in a more simple manner, as, for example, in English, « I have sinned through my own fault », or in French, « Oui, j’ai vraiment peche ».
Thus, all that is required is a single strike, regardless of whether the Confiteor contains a triple or only a single invocation of fault. On the other hand, however, it does not seem to be the intention of the rubric to
regulate how many times the congregant strikes his breast. One time “suffices” to satisfy the instruction, but nothing appears to forbid or prevent striking three times, if that is the individual’s choice. The old instruction had expressly said “
ter,” thrice, and if it had been the intention of the new instruction to limit the striking to once, then it could just as easily have said “
semel,” once. The apparently deliberate omission of any adverb of frequency ought typically to be taken to indicate a choice not to regulate the frequency.
