Through My Fault

When the Mea Culpa returns to the penitential rite of the Mass this fall, we will strike our breast three times while saying, "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault." The association of these physical actions with the words of repentance has been present since Biblical times.

But there is also a good chance that there is a linguistic linkage between the words and the actions, something innate, something closer than traditional practice.

Of the three likely and complementary early Latin sources of the word culpa, one of them, col-tua, means "something to be beaten for." If this is a verbal ancestor of mea culpa (my fault), then it isn't just traditional practice that insists on the striking of the breast. It is the word itself that demands it.

For more on the Confietor, see this WikiPedia article. Note the addition of omissióne (omissions) to the Confietor of the Ordinary Form.