I often have the impression that people aren’t paying great attention to the opening element of the Mass, the Penitential Rite. People are often still getting settled in, putting their missalette back after the opening hymn, or just not focused yet.

And so the opening sign of the cross and especially that acknowledgement to ourselves and to all those present that we are sinners, sometimes seem to be just some ritual words as we await the readings.

Like so many parts of the Mass, there is great beauty and essential spiritual lessons and guidance that come from the prayers and the gestures at the beginning of Mass.

The struggle to pay attention, to actually listen to the words of the prayers and to make the responses our very own are probably real for everyone who attends Mass. Our humanity and its distractions are ever present.

Still, unless we engage that struggle, unless we listen to and even read along the words of the prayers, part of what we can gain personally from attending Mass is minimized or even lost.

Consider for example, the sign of the cross that begins the Mass. In saying, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” we are putting all that will follow in a singularly sacred light and context. More than how every moment of our day is dedicated to God, what follows at Mass after the sign of the cross is consciously done in God’s name.

If we were to heed those words and say them with meaning, it would not only dedicate what follows, but also raise our level of spiritual intensity for the rest of the Mass. We are personally offering this to God!

Besides the words, consider how we bless ourselves with the accompanying gesture of the sign of the cross. So often it can be done out of routine, even frankly, a bit sloppily.

If we understand this as a gesture offered to unite ourselves once more to the cross of Christ, when reverently done, it too helps us to enter fully and personally into the Mass that follows.

The celebrant then invites us to take a moment of, what is so difficult for us in our busy and bustling society, silence. We pause, for a particular task which is to call to mind our sins.

Once more, we can be presented with a spiritual challenge. That moment of silent reflection has the potential for distraction, or simply “blanking out” while we wait for the Mass to resume. But it has a particular purpose, that of reminding ourselves that each of us comes to Mass in need.

We are in need of salvation that is not automatic. We are in need of the forgiveness of Christ that flows from the cross and is conveyed to us through the Church.

We use that moment of silence to think of our personal sins. That means that we strip away excuses and evasions and enter into one of the most spiritually and humanly therapeutic exercises.

We look inside ourselves and call out by name the faults and flaws that we have and continue to live.

Uncharitable thoughts? Bad language? Missing Mass? Mortal sin of some stripe?

How well the Church helps us. Only by acknowledging our guilt will we convert our hearts and turn to Christ’s forgiveness.

We shouldn’t overlook how hard that brief and silent action can be.

The temptation is to look only on our good side. Often, one tries to project to the world a front that covers what lies within our hearts. This moment of silence, however, strengthens us because it connects us to the truth about ourselves.

We follow that silent pause with a spoken completion: The Confiteor. “I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned.”

Now we go further and acknowledge our faults before all others at Mass with us. But lest we feel overly ashamed or unworthy, we recognize that all others are confessing their own faults as well.

We all stand together admitting that we are weak and we fail. But even more we are standing together in hope because what will follow in the Mass leads to salvation.

As we approach the Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis, we will be focusing on the call to conversion of our hearts so that we can accept forgiveness. Every time that we attend Mass, we partake in a special moment that calls for that change of heart.

Let’s resolve to enter deeply into that moment at every Mass.