Examination of Conscience

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD

AND THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH.

 

 

FIRST COMMANDMENT:

I AM THE LORD THY GOD; THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE

GODS BEFORE ME.

 

 

Sins contrary to the First Commandment are the following:

 

Negligence:

Neglect of prayer; ingratitude toward God; spiritual sloth; hatred of God

or of the Catholic Church; tempting God (explicitly or implicitly, e.g. by

exposing one’s self to danger of soul, life, or health without grave cause);

not behaving reverently when in church (e.g. not genuflecting to the

Blessed Sacrament when entering or leaving the church, etc.).

 

Idolatry:

Excessive attraction to things/creatures (e.g. over-affection to animals, sports

fanatic, having movie star /music/TV idols, love for money, pleasure or

power); idolatry (worshiping false gods such as giving honor to a creature

in place of God (e.g. Satan, science, ancestors, country);

 

Superstition:

(ascribing powers to a created thing which it does not have); hypnotism

(without sufficient cause); divination (communication with Satan,

demons, the dead or other false practices in order to discover the

unknown, consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, fortune

telling); attaching undue importance to dreams, omens or lots; all

practices of magic or sorcery (e.g. witchcraft, voodoo); wearing charms;

playing with Ouija boards or rotating tables; spiritism (talking with the

spirits).

 

Sacrilege:

 (profaning or treating unworthily the Sacraments,

especially the Holy Eucharist, and other liturgical actions, as well as

religious persons, blessed things such as sacred vessels or statues, or

places consecrated to God); sacrilege by receiving a sacrament, especially

the Holy Eucharist, in the state of mortal sin;

 

Simony:

(buying or selling of spiritual things); profane or superstitious use of blessed objects

(sometimes done in order to remain in sin); practical materialism (one

believes he needs and desires only material things); atheistic humanism

(falsely considers man to be an end in himself, and the sole maker with

supreme control of his own history); atheism in general (rejects, denies

or doubts the existence of God, either in theory or practice, i.e. ignoring

Him in the daily living of our lives); agnosticism (postulates the existence

of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about

which nothing can be said or makes no judgment about God’s existence

declaring it impossible to prove or even to affirm or deny).

 

Sins against Faith:

 

Wilful doubt of any article of faith; deliberate ignorance of the truths of

faith which ought to be known; neglect of instructing oneself in the faith

according to one’s state in life; rash credulity (e.g. giving credence to

private revelation too easily or believing in a private revelations which

has been condemned by the lawful Church authorities); apostasy; heresy;

indifferentism (to believe that one religion is as good as another, and that

all religions are equally true and pleasing to God, or that one is free to

accept or reject any or all religions); reading or circulating books or

writings against the Catholic belief or practice in such wise as to

jeopardize one’s faith; to remain silent when asked about one’s faith;

engaging is schismatic or heretical worship; joining or supporting

masonic groups or other forbidden societies.

 

Sins against Hope:

 

Despair of God’s mercy (to give up all hope of salvation, and the means

necessary to be saved) or want of confidence in the power of His Grace

to support us in trouble or temptation; no desire to possess eternal

happiness in heaven or after this earthly life; presumption (to hope for

salvation without help from God or to assume God’s forgiveness without

conversion, or to hope to obtain heavenly glory without merit);

presuming on God’s mercy or on the supposed efficacy of certain pious

practices, in order to continue in sin; refusing any dependence on God.

 

Sins against Charity:

 

Not making an act of charity at regular intervals during life especially

during times of necessity; egoism (one cares only about himself, praises

himself, selfish, enjoys receiving praise) wilfully rebellious thoughts

against God; boasting of sin; violating God’s law, or omitting good works

through human respect.

 

SECOND COMMANDMENT:

 

 

THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN

VAIN

 

Sins contrary to the Second Commandment:

 

Blasphemy:

Dishonoring of God by profane or disrespectful use of the Name of God,

or of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, the name of the Blessed Virgin

Mary and all the saints; blasphemy (speech or gestures that have

contempt for or insult to God, Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, the

Blessed Virgin Mary or the saints);

 

Perjury (to promise something under

oath with no intention of keeping it, or breaking a promise made under

oath); taking false or unnecessary oaths (to call on God to be witness to

a lie); breaking vows or promises to God; talking during Mass and in a

Church without sufficient reason or to the distraction of others.

 

THIRD COMMANDMENT:

REMEMBER THAT THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE LORD’S DAY

 

Sins contrary to the Third Commandment:

 

Omission of prayer and divine worship, all unnecessary servile work, and

whatever hinders the keeping of the Lord’s Day holy; engaging in

unnecessary commerce, i.e. buying and selling on Sundays and Holy

Days of Obligation.

 

FOURTH COMMANDMENT

HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER

 

Sins contrary to the Fourth Commandment:

 

For Parents: Hating their children; cursing them; giving scandal to them

by cursing, drinking, etc.; allowing them to grow up in ignorance,

idleness or sin; showing habitual partiality without cause; deferring a

child’s baptism; neglecting to watch over their bodily health, their

religious instruction, the company they keep, the books they read, etc.;

failing to correct them when needful; being harsh or cruel in correction;

sending children to Protestant and other dangerous schools; neglect of

directing them to attend Holy Mass on Sundays and Holy Days and to

frequent reception of the Sacraments.

 

For Children: All manner of anger or hatred against parents and other

lawful superiors; provoking them to anger; grieving them; insulting them;

neglecting them in their necessity; contempt or disobedience to their

lawful commands.

 

Husbands and wives: Ill-usage (i.e. using them without consideration for

their own welfare and without regard to charity); putting obstacles to the

fulfilment of religious duties; want of gentleness and consideration in

regard to each other’s faults; unreasonable jealousy; neglect of household

duties; sulkiness; injurious words; neglect of attempting to secure means

of supporting the family due to laziness or timidity.

 

For Employers: not allowing one’s employees reasonable time for

religious duties and instruction; giving bad example to them or allowing

others to do so; withholding their lawful wages; not caring for them in

sickness; dismissing them arbitrarily and without cause; imposing

unreasonable policies.

 

For Employees: disrespect to employers; want of obedience in matters

wherein one has bound oneself to obey (e.g. by fulfilling a contract);

waste of time; neglect of work; waste of employer’s property by

dishonesty, carelessness or neglect; violating company policies without

sufficient reason.

 

For Professionals and Civil Servants: culpable lack of the knowledge

relating to duties of office or profession; neglect in discharging those

duties; injustice or partiality; exorbitant fees (this sin may also be

included under the Seventh Commandment).

 

For Teachers: neglecting the progress of those confided to their care;

unjust, indiscreet or excessive punishment; partiality; bad example; loose

or false maxims (i.e. teaching them things which are untrue as being true)

 

Students: disrespect; disobedience; stubbornness; idleness; waste of time;

giving in to idle distractions (e.g. partying and undue recreating)

 

For All: contempt for the laws of State and country as well as of the

Church; disobedience to lawful authority; breaking of civil laws.

 

FIFTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT KILL

 

 

Sins against the Fifth commandment include:

 

Murder;

Performing an abortion; having an abortion, aiding in someone

procuring an abortion (the penitent should know that having, causing or

aiding in an abortion causing one to be excommunicated); use of

abortifacient contraceptives, euthanasia;

withholding ordinary means or sustenance to a dying or terminally ill patient;

suicide; attempts of suicide, serious thoughts about committing suicide; fighting;

quarreling anger; hatred; desires of revenge; human torture;

 

Gluttony:

(excessive eating or drinking); drunkenness; abuse of alcohol, medicine

or drugs; gambling, or even exercise or other activities, if indulged in to excess

hedonistically, especially if at the expense of one’s duties of state

and spiritual life.

 

Endangerment:

Endangering other people’s lives (e.g. by drinking and driving,

by driving too fast, etc.); risking one’s own life or limb without a

sufficient reason (e.g. daredevil stunts, Russian roulette, etc.);

carelessness in leaving about poisons, dangerous drugs, weapons, etc.;

mutilation of the body, such as castration, vasectomy, tubal ligation,

hysterectomy (without sufficient medical cause); immoral scientific

research and its applications; bad example or scandal; disrespect for the

dying or the dead; not trying to avoid war;

 

Lack of charity:

Showing aversion or contempt for others; refusing to speak to them

when addressed; ignoring offers of reconciliation especially between

relatives; cherishing an unforgiving spirit;

raillery and ridicule; insults; irritating words and actions; sadness

at another’s prosperity; rejoicing over another’s misfortune; envy at

attention shown to others; tyrannical behavior;

 

Contributing to another’s sins:

inducing others to sin by word or example; injury to health by over-indulgence;

giving drink to others knowing they will abuse it; taking contraceptive pills

which may or may not be an abortifacient; use of prophylactic or barrier methods to

avoid pregnancy; using licit means of avoiding conception while

fostering a contraceptive mentality; direct sterilization; causing

unnecessary suffering or death to animals.

 

SIXTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

 

 

Sins against the Sixth Commandment are the following:

 

Impurity:

impurity and immodesty in words, looks, and actions, whether alone or

with others, telling and listening to dirty jokes; wearing immodest

clothing; buying, renting or watching indecent movies, television or

books (pornography as well as books which contain impurity);

 

Immorality:

masturbation; fornication (sometimes called premarital sex); prostitution;

sodomy (homosexual practices); adultery; divorce; polygamy; incest;

sexual abuse; rape; prolonged and sensual kissing; petting or foreplay

outside the context of marriage and within the context of marriage not

ordering foreplay to the consummation of the natural conjugal act;

immodest dancing; dating without taking the necessary precautions to

safeguard purity or one’s faith.

 

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

 

Sins against the Seventh Commandment are:

 

Theft:

Stealing; petty thefts (e.g. taking things from one’s place of employment

to which one is not entitled or taking money from a family member

without his permission); cheating; plagiarizing; breaking copyright

regulations, (e.g. photocopying without permission); keeping borrowed

or lost objects without making a reasonable attempt to restore the other’s

property; possession of ill-gotten goods; counseling or commanding

someone to do injury to another person or to his goods; careless or

malicious injury to the property of others; concealment of fraud, theft or

damage when in duty bound to give the information; tax evasion by not

paying just taxes; business fraud; dishonesty in politics, business, etc.;

not paying just debts at scheduled time and neglecting to make reasonable

efforts and sacrifices in this matter, e.g. by gradually laying up the

amount required; not making reparation or compensation to someone

suffering from unjust damages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of

the ignorance or hardship of another; usury (lending money at high

interest rates to someone in financial difficulty); speculation in which one

contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an

advantage to the detriment of others; corruption in which one influences

the judgment of those who must decide in legal matters; accepting bribes;

appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an

enterprise; work poorly done; paying unjust wages or defrauding an

employee of due benefits; forgery of checks and invoices; bouncing

checks knowing that there is not enough funds to cover them; excessive

expenses and waste; not keeping promises or contract agreements (if the

commitments were morally just); gambling and betting (if they deprive

someone of basic living needs for himself or others); spending more

than you know you have, entering into debt unnecessarily, excessive

unnecessary waste of goods, resources, money or funds.

 

EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY

NEIGHBOR

 

 

Sins contrary to the Eighth Commandment are:

 

Lying; boasting; bragging; flattery; hypocrisy; exaggerating; irony;

sarcasm; unjust injury to another’s good name either by revealing true

and hidden faults (detraction); telling false defects (slander or calumny),

talebearing, or spreading rumors; to criticize others, to listen with

pleasure to others being criticized; gossiping; unjustly dishonoring

another person in his presence (contumely); rash judgment (firmly

believing, without sufficient reason, that someone has some moral

defect); revealing secrets; publishing discreditable secrets about others,

even if true; refusing or delaying to restore the good name one has

blackened; baseless accusations; groundless suspicions; rash judgments

of others in our own mind.

 

NINTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE

 

The Ninth Commandment forbids all those impure thoughts and

desires which we take deliberate pleasure in so thinking, or we willingly

consent to it whenever these unchaste thoughts or passions come into our

mind. The penitent should keep in mind that any sin listed under the sixth

commandment in which one willing or deliberately entertains may have the

same degree of gravity, i.e. either mortal or venial sin.

 

TENTH COMMANDMENT

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S GOODS

 

 

The Tenth Commandment forbids the following:

 

Envy (desire another goods); jealousy (a zealous vigilance in keeping a

good enjoyed by oneself from others); greed and the desire to have

material goods without limit (avarice); the desire to become rich at all

costs; businesses or professions who hope for unfavorable circumstances

for others so that they may personally profit from it; envious of someone

else’s success, talents, temporal or spiritual goods; the desire to commit

injustice by harming someone in order to get his temporal goods.

 

THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH

 

Besides the Ten Commandments of God, the faithful are also bound

to follow the Precepts of the Church. The power for making these laws

comes from Jesus Christ, and includes everything necessary for the

government of the Church and for the direction of the faithful in order that

they may attain their eternal salvation.

 

FIRST PRECEPT

TO ASSIST AT HOLY MASS ON ALL SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAYS

OF OBLIGATION

 

 

There are Six Holy days of obligation:

1) Christmas Day (December 25)

2) The Circumcision (January 1)

3) Ascension Thursday (40 days after Easter)

4) The Assumption (August 15)

5) All Saints Day (November 1)

6) The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8)

 

The Church obliges us to abstain from servile work on Holy Days of

Obligation, just as on Sundays, as far as we are able. Catholics who must

work on Holy Days are obliged to attend Holy Mass unless excused by a

reasonable grave cause. One may violate this precept by not attending Mass

on the prescribed days or by arriving late to Mass without sufficient reason.

 

SECOND PRECEPT

TO FAST, ABSTAIN AND DO PENANCE ON PRESCRIBED DAYS

 

The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their 14th year. The

law of fasting binds those who have attained their age of majority (18), until

the beginning of their 60th year. Fasting means to eat less food than one

normally eats.

 

On days of fasting, we are allowed only one full meal and two smaller meals

together are less than one full meal; days of fasting are Ash Wednesday and

Good Friday.

 

On days of abstinence, we are forbidden to eat flesh-meat; days of abstinence

are: all of the Fridays of the year. In the United States, some form of penance

or prayers may be done in place of the abstinence for those Fridays of the

year outside of Lent. The permitted substitute penance could be: saying a

Rosary, Stations of the Cross, visiting the sick or imprisoned, etc.

 

THIRD PRECEPT

TO CONFESS OUR MORTAL SINS AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR

 

 

The Church urges us to go to the great Sacrament of Confession

frequently, but only actually commands us to go at least once a year in order

to warn those people who may have presumption on the mercy of God, which

is a sin against the Holy Ghost. Parents must prepare their children for

Confession when the children learn to distinguish right from wrong. (i.e.) at

about 7 years of age). The obligation to confess once a year is only binding

on those who have committed a mortal sin and have not confessed for at least

one year.

 

FOURTH PRECEPT

TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION DURING EASTER SEASON.

 

 

The Easter Season begins on the First Sunday of Lent and ends on

Trinity Sunday. However, after receiving our First Holy Communion, it is

strongly recommended to receive this great Sacrament frequently during our

lifetime (everyday if possible as recommended by Pope St. Pius X).

 

FIFTH PRECEPT

CONTRIBUTE TO THE SUPPORT OF YOUR PASTOR

 

 

This precept requires each to provide for the material needs of the

Church according to his means.

 

SIXTH PRECEPT

TO OBSERVE THE LAWS OF THE CHURCH CONCERNING

MARRIAGE.

 

 

Have I entered into marriage or aided any one else to do so without

permission from the Church to marry or before a State official or a Protestant

minister; or without dispensation within the forbidden degrees of kindred; or

with any other known impediment?

 

 

 

Actus Contritionis

Deus meus, ex toto corde me paénitet ac dóleo de omnibus quae male egi et de bono quod omísi, quia peccándo offéndi te, summe bonum ac dignum qui super ómnia diligáris. Fírmiter propóno, adiuvánte grátia tua, me paeniténtiam ágere, de cétero non peccatúrum peccatíque, occasiónes fugitúrum. Per mérita passiónis Salvatóris nostri Iesu Christi, Dómine, miserére. Amen.