Examen de conscience

Examination of Conscience and Guide to the Sacrament

Self-examination is a prayerful reflection on our actions in light of our faith to identify sins, patterns of sin, or ways we fall short of what God calls us to be. Once we acknowledge our sins, we can ask God for forgiveness and healing. (Check out the end of this article for more ways to tell your kids why we're going to Confession.)

A good examination of conscience takes into account all areas of our life: our thoughts and words, what we have done and what we have failed to do. Generally, it consists of questions in three categories: the call to love God, the call to love others and the call to love oneself. Most forms of self-examination are based on the Ten Commandments.

You can find many forms of self-examination in various prayer books. Self-examination is the act of prayerfully looking into our hearts to ask ourselves how we have harmed our relationships with God and others through our thoughts, words, and actions. We reflect on the Ten Commandments and the teachings of the Church. Questions help us in our examination of conscience.

The basic requirement for a good confession is to have the intention to return to God with all your heart, like the prodigal son and to acknowledge your sins with real pain before the priest, who is there to remind you of Christ.

Modern society has lost the sense of sin. A soul-searching helps us do just that. To make a good examination of conscience and live a life in good relationship with God, his laws and the happiness he desires for us, it is also essential for each of us to develop a well-formed conscience.

An examination of conscience is an examination of one's past thoughts, words. In other words, an examination of conscience helps you to identify the moments in your life when you have pleased God with your virtue - the good things you have done or said - or when, on the contrary, you have fallen into the fishing. If you examine your conscience in order to discover and reflect on your sins, then you can bring those uncovered sins before God in the sacrament of confession and ask for his forgiveness.

First examine your conscience well, then tell the priest the specific type of sins you have committed and, to the best of your ability, how many times you have committed them since your last good confession. You are only obligated to confess mortal sins, since you can obtain forgiveness for your venial sins through sacrifices and acts of charity. If you have doubts about the mortal or venial character of a sin, express your doubt to the confessor. Also remember that the confession of venial sins is very useful to avoid sin and move towards Heaven.

By this term is meant an examination of one's past thoughts, words, and deeds for the purpose of determining their conformity or deformity with respect to the moral law. Directly, this examination concerns only the will, ie the good or the bad intention which inspires its thoughts, its words and its actions.

In the hearts of all men, one sometimes hears the voice of conscience enjoining them to seek their moral perfection, not so much for the dignity and happiness which it confers upon them, but out of respect for the holiness of the Supreme Author of the moral law. This precept of a rational nature has been reinforced by the voice of revelation.