[Question:]{.underline} Does one strike one’s breast at the Hail Holy Queen and the consecration of Mass?
[Answer:]{.underline} Pious practices are good and merit worthy when done with the right intention. However, we should always endeavor to ensure that they make sense, and that the external gesture corresponds with the interior sentiment or conviction. Otherwise, they become private, bizarre, excessive and off-putting, regardless of the good intentions of the persons involved.
The symbolism of striking one’s breast is both clear and evangelical. We find it clearly described by our Divine Savior in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican: “But the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but [kept striking his breast]{.underline}, saying “O God be merciful to me the sinner!’” (Lk 18:13).
Consequently the Church prescribes the rubric of striking one’s breast, when the sentiment is that of sorrow for sin and the prayer one for forgiveness. It is an outward side that our heart is crushed by its sense of unworthiness, which is what contrition really is. Thus it is that the striking of one’s breast is prescribed at the triple mea culpa in the Confiteor’s at Mass and in the Divine Office and the administration of the sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction. It is also prescribed at the triple invocation at the Agnus Dei of Mass, when the people pray “Have mercy on us, Have mercy on us, Grant us peace”, and at the triple prayer “Domine, non sum dignus” which is recited by the priest before Holy Communion, and then by the faithful. It is interesting to note that it is not to be done at the Agnus Dei of a Requiem Mass, for then we do not ask for forgiveness and peace for ourselves, but rather eternal rest for the poor souls in Purgatory.
The “custom” of striking one’s breast at other moments, in which the sentiment is not one of profound contrition, is abusive. Consequently, this gesture is not to be made in the prayer of the Hail Holy Queen, at the invocation “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary”, as is sometimes piously but wrongly done. Likewise it is not to be done at the consecration or elevation during Mass, for the sentiment then is not one of contrition, but rather one of profound adoration, in which we repeat silently to ourselves the words of St. Thomas “My Lord and My God”. Such striking of one’s breast, as pious as it may seem, is not be retained, for it makes no sense.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.