Before celebrating the Sacrament of Penance, one should prepare oneself with an examination of conscience, which involves reflecting prayerfully on one’s thoughts, words, and deeds in order to identify any sins.
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EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
1. You shall have no other gods besides the Lord your God.
- Do I love God above all things?
- Is He number one in my life or do I put myself before God?
- Have money and pleasure become more important to me than the God who created me for Himself?
- Do I pray often? Have I neglected my friendship with God by neglecting prayer?
- Have I been involved with occult or superstitious practices, i.e., fortune telling?
- Have I ever received Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin?
- Have I told a lie in confession or deliberately withheld confessing a mortal sin?
2. You shall not take the Lord your God’s name in vain.
- Have I ever committed perjury, that is, lied under oath in a court of law?
- Have I ever lied after “swearing to God” that I am telling the truth?
- Have I ever used God’s name out of anger, that is, as a curse?
3. Keep the Sabbath day holy.
- Have I deliberately missed Holy Mass on the Sabbath (Saturday evening through Sunday)?
- Have I ever missed Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation.
4. Honor your father and your mother so that you may live long and flourish.
- Do I disobey my parents?
- Do I fail to respect them?
- Do I swear at them?
- Am I ashamed of them?
- Do I let them know I love them?
- Do I lie to them?
- Do I steal from them?
- Am I obeying and honouring those in place of my parents, such as teachers and principals?
- Do I skip class?
- Do I lie to my teachers?
- Do I swear at them?
5. You shall not kill.
- Am I killing myself by taking illegal drugs, such as marijuana?
- Abusing alcohol?
- Have I had an abortion?
- Have I ever counselled anyone to have an abortion?
- Do I stand up for the unborn child’s right to life, or have I merely accepted society’s anti-life mentality?
- Have I used abortifacient contraceptives or encouraged anyone to do so?
- Have I sterilized myself in any way or encouraged anyone to do so?
- Did I participate in or approve of euthanasia or “mercy-killing”?
- Have I murdered anyone’s reputation by deliberately spreading rumours or keeping rumours alive by passing them on?
- Do I nurse anger against anyone?
- Hold a grudge?
- Refuse to forgive another?
- Have I cursed anyone?
6. You shall not commit adultery.
- Have I ever had sex with anyone?
- Have I had sex with myself?
- Have I ever watched pornography either on the Internet or through some other media?
- Have I ever freely and deliberately entertained impure thoughts?
- Have I practiced any form of contraception?
- Am I modest in dress?
7. You shall not steal.
- Do I steal from my parents?
- Do I steal from friends?
- Have I ever stolen from a stranger?
- Have I stolen any property from a store?
- In other words, have I ever taken what rightfully belongs to another?
- Do I gamble excessively?
- Do I seek to share what I have with the poor and needy?
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
- Am I a liar?
- Am I guilty of detraction, that is, making known the faults of others?
- Am I guilty of slander, that is, spreading lies about someone?
- Do I gossip about others?
- Do I reveal information that should be confidential?
- Am I “two-faced”, that is, have I been a certain kind of person to some people, but a completely different kind of person to others?
9. & 10. You shall not envy your neighbour’s wife and goods.
- Am I envious of others?
- Do I wish that others be deprived of the goods or talents that are theirs?
- Am I jealous of others?
- Do I harbor unforgiveness and grudges against others?
- Am I a resentful person?
- Do I put down others?
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