Examination of Conscience

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

1. Sins that need to be confessed…

2. Why confess my sins to a priest?

3. What makes a sin mortal?

4. How do I go to confession?

1.Sins that need to be confessed…

Abortion

Adultery

Any dealing with the occult, ie. ouija boards, palm readers, crystals, witchcraft etc…

Artificial Birth Control

Bearing false witness: testifying falsely

Blasphemy: Disrespect toward God or toward His Holy Name.

Breaking promises deliberately

Bringing dishonor to family, school, community, or the Church.

Calumny: telling lies about another

Despair: to believe that God will refuse to forgive you

Destruction of other people’s property

Detraction: Telling an unkind truth about another

Disobedience toward parents, teachers, bishop, superiors

Drugs: use of illegal drugs, misuse of prescription drugs

Drunkenness, including underage drinking

Euthanasia: mercy killing ie. excessive morphine drip beyond pain reducing

Excessive materialism

Gluttony: eating or drinking to excess

Gossip: talking about others needlessly

Hatred

Homosexual actions

Impure thoughts deliberately entertained

Indifference to good or evil

Ingratitude

Intentional violation of school rules or the ethical laws of our country

Invitrofertilization

Jealousy

Lack of forgiveness

Laziness

Lying

Malice: the deliberate choice of evil

Masturbation: impure acts with self

Missing Mass on Sunday or Holyday of Obligation

Murder

NOT PRAYING EVERYDAY

Not giving to the poor and the Church

Not taking medicines responsibly-(for mortal sin, depends on the importance of the med)

Premarital sex: including oral sex, intercourse, and impure touching. Other physical expressions appropriate to marriage can become near occasions of sin for the unmarried

Presumption: Sinning and saying God MUST forgive me

Pride

Prostitution

Reckless driving that endangers you, passengers, or others

Resentments

Rudeness

Selfishness

Sterilization

Stealing

Superstition

Unjustified Anger

Using others for personal gain

Watching or looking at pornography

2. Why confess my sins to a priest?

Because Jesus wants it that way!

The sacrament of penance was instituted by Christ on Easter Sunday night, when he told the Apostle’s, “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:22-23). The Catholic Church interprets these words to imply that Christ conferred on the Apostles and their successors not merely the right to declare that a person’s sins are forgiven but also the power of forgiving in Christ’s name those who are judged worthy of remission and of withholding absolution for those who are not disposed to be absolved.

As defined by the Catholic Church, the confession and absolution of sins is “truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord, for reconciling the faithful to God as often as they fall into sin after baptism” (Denzinger 1701).

– taken from Fr. Hardon SJ, Modern Cath. Dictionary.

3. What makes a sin mortal?

For a sin to be mortal (death to the soul), three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

See CCC [Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1857, 1858, 1859,etc…]

All other sins are venial: “An offense against God which does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace. The soul still has the vital principle that allows a cure from within, similar to the healing of of a sick or diseased body whose source of animation (the soul) is still present to restore the ailing bodily function to health.”

– taken from Fr. Hardon SJ, Modern Cath. Dictionary.

4. How do I Go To Confession?

“Click” on Examinations of Conscience – Adults, Teens, Children and the Examination used by the Community Cenacolo for more examinations and the prayers for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.