Penitential Prayer

I contemplate my sin and wonder, why?
Why do I do what I know is wrong?
Why do I do that which deters me from my destiny?
There is the one who knew me before I was conceived,
The one whose thought became my existence.
Happy are those who do not follow the council of the wicked.
Yet wickedness comes from my own heart.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
Have mercy on me, a sinner.


Stephen M. Bauer