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Summary
- An examination of conscience is “an earnest effort to recall to mind all the sins we have committed since our last worthy confession” (Baltimore Catechism), made before confession or, more briefly, at the end of a day.
- Catholics usually examine their conscience by the Ten Commandments, because the Catechism teaches that “grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments” (1858).
- The five precepts of the Church, from Sunday Mass to fasting and abstinence, are part of the examination too (Catechism 2041–2043).
- A sin is mortal when grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent are all present (Catechism 1857); mortal sins are confessed by kind and number (canon 988).
- Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s daily examen has five points: thanks, light to know one’s sins, a review of the day, asking pardon, and a resolution to amend with God’s grace.
- Sins forgotten after a diligent examination are “understood to be included as a whole in that same confession” (Council of Trent, Session XIV).
- Confession forgives the sin, but the Catechism asks the penitent to repair the harm done, “even if its author has been forgiven” (2487).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- King James Version: Lamentations 3:40; 1 Corinthians 11:28; Psalm 139:23–24; Matthew 22:37–39; Matthew 5:28; 1 Corinthians 13:4–7; 1 John 1:9, BibleGateway.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Ten Commandments (Part Three, Section Two), including paragraphs 2084–2557 and the “In Brief” summaries of each commandment, Vatican.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 1454–1460, the acts of the penitent, Vatican; 1776–1794, moral conscience, Vatican; 1852–1869, the kinds and gravity of sin, Vatican; 2041–2043, the precepts of the Church, Vatican; 2447, the works of mercy, Vatican.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 1244, Communion of the newly baptized in the Eastern Churches, Vatican.
- Code of Canon Law, canon 916 (Communion after grave sin), Vatican; canons 988–989 (confession of grave sins), Vatican; canons 1246–1253 (holy days, fasting and abstinence), Vatican.
- A Catechism of Christian Doctrine (the Baltimore Catechism), No. 1, prepared by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore and approved in 1885 (Project Gutenberg’s text follows a later printing): the Ten Commandments, questions 191–192 and 206–207, Project Gutenberg.
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1888): prayers before examination, “Examination of Conscience” and evening prayers, Internet Archive.
- Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, translated by Elder Mullan, S.J. (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1914): the particular and general examens and the notes on scruples, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
- Council of Trent, Session XIV (25 November 1551), on the sacrament of Penance, chapter V, in The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Oecumenical Council of Trent, translated by J. Waterworth (London, 1848), Hanover Historical Texts.
- Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera (20 November 2016), 12, Vatican.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, A Brief Examination of Conscience Based on the Ten Commandments (2013), USCCB.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, How to Go to Confession (2013), USCCB.
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