Sacraments helps Catholics in their pursuit of holiness and in order to maintain the grace of God in our souls, we need to regularly confess our sins to the Priest. Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession was intituted by Jesus Christ himself when he said to Peter: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). That is why it is our obligation to confess our sins and in order to make a good confession, we must also examine carefully our conscience, taking into consideration every venial and mortal sins we committed. We posted this guide to help the faithful in making a good confession. Follow these steps gradually as you make your way through the process of examination of your conscience.

Our Lord Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Penance “so that those who have committed sin after baptism may be reconciled with God whome they have offended and with the church which they have wounded (John Paul II, January 6, 1983).

PRAYER BEFORE CONFESSION

O Almighty and most merciful God, who has made me out of nothing and redeemed me by the precious blood of your Son, behol;dold me O Lord, prostrate at your feet to implore your forgiveness. I desire most sincerely to leave all my evil ways, to forsake this region of death where I have so long lost myself, and to return to you, the fountain of life.

I desire now to comply with your holy institution of the sacrament of reconciliation. I desire to confess my sins with all sincerity to you and to your minister, and therefore I now call myself to a diligent examination of conscience.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE CONFESSION?

1. Examine your Conscience

Examine your conscience. Recall your sins. Calmly ask yourself what you have done with full knowledge and full consent against God’s commandment. See the guide below…

2. Be truly sorry for your sins

This is even more important than recalling your sins. This is not difficult if you remember that for one mortal sin, you could have been, now and forever, in the fires of hell, without any hope to attain anymore the eternal bliss and glory of heaven. You owe it to the mercy of God, your loving Father, who saw your misery and did not punish you  at once but waited for your return.

3. Firm resolve

Resolve firmly in your heart that you will prefer to die rather than sin. You need not promise that you will not fall again into sin. We know our great weakness and proneness to sin. Trusting in God, resolve now to try your best in the future to avoid sin.  Sins and temptations may continue to attract us, but our will should be determined to detest and reject them.

GUIDE IN THE EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

The First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall not have other Gods before me”.

• Have I performed my duties towards God reluctantly or grudgingly?
• Do I recite my usual prayers?
• Did I receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin or without the necessary preparation?
• Did I miss the one-hour Eucharistic fast
• Did I fail to mention some grave sin in my previous confession?
• Did I seriously believe in superstition or engage in superstitious practices (fortune-telling, horoscope, faithhealing etc?).
• Did I seriously doubt in matters of faith?
• Did I put my faith in danger by reading books, pamphlets or magazines which contain errors or are contrary to Catholic faith and morals
• Did I endanger my faith by joining or attending meetings and activities of organizations contrary to the Church or to the Catholic faith (protestant services, non-catholic prayer meetings, the communist party, freemasonry, weird cults, and other denominations and heretical cults such as the Mormons, Iglesia ni Cristo and seventh-day adventist).
• Have I committed the sin of sacrilege (profanation of a sacred person place or thing).

The Second Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”

• Do I try my best to fullfill the promises and resolutions which I make to God?
• Did I take the name of God in vain?
• Did I make use of God’s name mockingly, jokingly, angrily or in any other irreverent manner?
• Did I make use of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s name or the saints’ names mockingly, jokingly, angrily or in any other irreverent manner?
• Have I been a sponsor or Godfather in baptisms and ceremonies outside the Catholic Church?
• Did I tell a lie under oath?
• Did I break (private or public) vows?

The Third Commandment: “Remember to keep Holy, the Sabbath Day”

• Did I miss Mass on Sundays or Holy days of Obligation?”
• Did I allow myself to be distracted during Mass by not paying attention, looking around out of curiosity, etc?
• Have I arrived at Mass so late without sufficient reason that I failed to fulfill the Sunday Obligation?
• Did I misbehave or have an improper posture or dress in Church or or caused others to get distracted?
• Do I generously help the Church in her necessities to the extent that I am able?
• Do I fast and abstain on the days prescribed by the Church?
• Have I done or commanded serville work (manual labor in which the body has more participation than the mind) on Sundays or Holydays of obligation?

The Fourth Commandment: “Honor thy mother and they father”

For Parents

• Have I neglected to teach my children their prayers, send them to Church and give them Christian Education?
• Have I given them bad example?
• Did I neglect to watch over my children; the companions they have, the books they read, movies and TV shows they watch?
• Have I seen to it  that my children made the First Confession and First Communion at around the age of Seven?

For Children

• Have I been disobedient or disrespectful towards my parents?
• Have I neglected to help my parents in their needs?
• Did I treat my parents with little affection or respect?
• Do I feel hurt and react proudly when I am corrected by them?
• Do I have disordered desire for independence?
• Do I do my house chores?
• Do I quarrel with my Brothers and Sisters?

The Fifth Commandment: “Thou shal not kill”

• Did I easily get angry or lose my temper?
• Was I envious or jealous of others?
• Did I injure or take the life of anyone?
• Was I ever reckless in driving?
• Was I an occasion for others to sin with my conversations, “green jokes”, way of dressing, invitations to attend certain shows, lending harmful books or magazines, helping them to steal etc?
• Did I try to repair the scandal done?
• How many persons did I lead to sin? What sins?
• Did I neglect my health?
• Did I ever attempt to take my life?
• Have I mutilated myself or another?
• Did I get drunk or prohibit drugs (marijuana, heroin, “upper”, “downers” etc?
• Did I eat or drink more than the sufficient amount, allowing myself to get carried aways by gluttony?
• Did I participate in any form of physical violence (rumbles, hazing, fights etc)?
• Did I consent or actively take part in direct sterilization (ligation, vasectomy etc)? Do I realize that this will have a permanent effect on my married life and that I will have to answer to God for its consequences?
• Did I consent, recommend, advise or actively take part in an abortion? Am I aware that the Church condemn those who procure and achieve abortion with excommunication?
• Did I cause anyone harm with my words or actions?
• When someone offends me, do I desire revenge, harbor enmity, hatred or ill feelings?
• Do I ask pardon whenever I offend anyone?
• Do I insult or tease others?

The Sixth and Ninth Commandments: “Thou shall not commit adultery” and “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife”

• Did I entertain indecent thoughts?
• Did I consent to evil desires against the virtue of purity, even though I may not have carried them out?
• Were there any circumstances which aggravated the sin (affinity with, or the married or the married state r the consecration to God, of the person involved)?
• Did I engage in impure conversations? Did I start them?
• Did I look for fun in forms of entertainment which put me in proximate occasions of sin (some dances, immoral movies or shows, readings, bad company, play, houses of ill-repute, beer houses, sauna baths, prostitution dens etc)?
• Do I realize that I maybe already committing a sin by putting myself in these occasions (sharing a room with malice with the opposite sex, in a car or dark places etc)?
• Before going to a show or reading a book, do I try to find out its moral implications, so as not to put myself in immediate danger of sinning and in order to avoid getting my conscience distorted?
• Did I entertain impure feelings?
• Did I wishfully look at immodest pictures or cast immodest looks upon myself or others? Did I wishfully desire to commit such sins?
• Did I lead others to sins of impurity or immodesty? What sins?
• Did I commit imoure acts? By myself through the practice of self abuse (masturbations) which is a mortal sin? With someone else? how many times? With people of the same or opposite sex? was there any circumstance of relationship, affinity, etc which could have given the sin special gravity?
• Do I have friendships which are habitual occasions of sin?
• Am I prepared to break off with them?
• In Courtship, is true love my fundamental reason for dealing with the other person?
• Do I live the constant and cheerful sacrifice of not putting the person I love in danger of sinning?
• Do I degrade human love by confusing it with selfishness or pleasure?
• Do I engage in acts that involve or lead to passion such as petting, necking passionate kisses and prolonged embraces?

For Married People

• Did I make improper use of marriage? Did I deprive my spouse of his (her) marital right? Did I betray conjugal fidelity in desire or in deed?
• Did I make use of marriage only in those days when offspring will not be engendered? Do I continue this method of controlling conception without grave reason?
• Did I take pills or other artificial means in order to prevent having children?
• Did I suggest their use to other people?
• Did I have a hand in contributing to the contraceptive atmosphere by my advice, jokes, attitudes, etc?

The Seventh and Tenth Commandments: “Thous shall not steal” and “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods”

• Did I steal any object or amount of money? Did I give it back or at least have the intention to do so?
• Have I done or caused damage to other’s property?
• Did I harm anyone by deception, fraud, or coercion in business contracts or transaction?
• Did I spend beyond my means? Do I spend too much money unnecessarily to whim vanity and caprices?
• Do I give alms according to my capacity?
• Am I envious of my neighbor’s goods?
• Did I neglect to pay my debts?
• Did I retain things found or stolen?
• Did I desire to steal?
• Am I diligent in my work and studies or do I give in to laziness or love of comfort?
• Was I greedy? Do I have an excessively materialistic view of life?

The Eight Commandment: “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor”

• Did I telllies? Did I repair any damage which may have results as a consequence of this?
• Have I unjustly accused others?
• Did I sin by calumny, that is, telling derogatory lies about others?
• Did I engage in gossip, back-biting or tal-telling?
• Did I reveal secrets without due cause?

ACT OF CONTRITION

O my God, I am heartfully sorry for having offended you and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offended you my who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life, Amen.