To start the Sacrament of Reconciliation, start with your state in life (married, single, parent, etc.) and approximate time since your last Confession; list all the grave, serious, major (mortal) sins by number and kind; a general admission of sinfulness suffices for less serious (venial) sins: i.e. impatience, intolerance, stinginess, lack of charity, forgiveness, etc.
Examination of Conscience Using St. Francis of Assisi’s Peace Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Have I allowed the Spirit of Jesus into my life, or have I been busy about many things, seeking peace elsewhere? Have I sought to find my peace and escape my responsibilities through such things as alcohol, drugs, self-centered pleasure, etc.? Have I allowed God to love and forgive me?
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Am I willing to take that extra step needed to bring bitterness and resentment to an end? Do I have the courage to love my family, my friends, my neighbors, even myself – the way Jesus loves – sacrificially? Would someone see in my relationships the words: “See how these Christians love one another?”
Where there is injury, pardon.
Have I built bridges between people? Or do I fan the flames of discord, enjoying the little sarcasms and petty feuds that bedevil the world? Is there someone in my life who cannot feel healed and made whole until I say, “I forgive you”?
Where there is doubt, faith.
Have I been the sort of person in whom someone can believe? Do I make possible the kind of experiences of personal faith that set the stage for faith in God? Am I willing to put my own faith on the line, even at the risk of being mocked or put down? Am I willing to share my faith, through prayer and involvement?
Where there is despair, hope.
Do I project the image of a hopeful person? Am I optimistic? Or am I a grouch, able to see only the deficiencies of human nature and not the grace of God at work within us? Am I willing and able to listen to the person who needs me to hear? Do I care and take time to listen with the ear, but also with the heart?
Where there is darkness, light.
Do I seek to live and act in the light or would I rather hide under cover of darkness? Am I an apostle of God’s Light? Or have I created shadows and gloom in the lives of people, treating them as objects rather than as persons, hurting their feelings, and damaging their good name by gossip or slander?
Where there is sadness, joy.
Am I a joyful person, or a prophet of gloom? Am I able to laugh, even at myself, and see the humor that exists at the heart of our pilgrim experience>? Are people enriched and gladdened or diminished and saddened whenever they meet me?
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
Have I discovered what it means to be, like Jesus, a person for others? Do I believe that the more I give in love, the more I have to give?
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
In what way am I a prisoner of self today, held captive by fear or guilt or doubt or sin? What is there in me that must die, if I am to live and breathe free, and know that I am loved by God? Will I be reborn this Lent through the confession of my sins?
