Examination of Conscience for Young Women

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION ON YOUR LAST CONFESSION.

1. How long is it since I last went to confession?

2. Did I take sufficient pains to awaken contrition?

3. Did I omit to confess a mortal sin, either intentionally or through forgetfulness?

4. Did I intentionally neglect to say the penance which was imposed on me, or was I so careless as to forget it?

5. Have I carried out the resolutions I then made, or have I paid no heed at all to them?

Examination on the Ten Commandments of God.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.

On our conduct in regard to God and divine things.

Sins against faith:

1. Have I entertained and yielded to doubts against the faith?

2. Have I allowed myself to listen to those who spoke with contempt or derision of our holy faith?

3. Have I ever willingly omitted my morning or night prayers?

4. Have I spoken irreverently of holy things?

5. Have I taken pleasure in hearing sacred things spoken of with disrespect?

6. How often have I read books, newspapers or periodicals of an anti-Catholic tendency?

Sins against hope:

1. Have I deliberately despaired of God's mercy?

2. Have I rashly presumed upon His forbearance in order to commit sin?

3. Have I given way to pusillanimity with full consent?

4. How often have I allowed myself to commit a venial sin under the plea that it did not amount to anything?

Sins against charity:

1. Have I willingly entertained feelings of repugnance toward religious practices, such as prayer, attendance at divine service, etc.

2. Have I murmured against the ordinances of divine providence, the trials and sufferings sent upon me, etc.?

Sins against the reverence due to God:

1. Have I made use of superstitious practices or consulted fortune-tellers?

2. Have I omitted prayers, genuflections, the sign of the cross or other religious duties through motives of human respect?

3. Have I been guilty of voluntary distraction at my prayers?

4. Have I wilfully caused disturbance during public worship?

5. Have I spoken with levity of sacred objects and places?

6. How often have I done what is good more from a desire to please than from any better motive?

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

1. Have I in any important matter taken God to witness in what was untrue, or have I sworn falsely?

2. Have I voluntarily broken an oath, or failed to fulfil a vow?

3. Have I taken God's name in vain, or uttered it without respect?

4. Have I sworn rashly, or used God's holy name as an imprecation?

5. Have I called God to witness without sufficient reason?

6. Have I postponed the fulfilment of a promise without any necessity?

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

On the observance of Sundays and holidays.

1. Have I omitted hearing Mass on any Sunday or holiday of obligation without a good reason? How often?

2. Have I on Sundays or holidays indulged voluntary distractions during Mass?

3. Have I done any servile work without necessity on Sundays or holidays?

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

On our duty toward parents and superiors.

In regard to the respect that is due parents and superiors:

1. Have I been disrespectful in my behavior toward my parents, toward priests or other superiors?

2. Have I imagined them guilty of grievous sins, or exaggerated their faults?

3. Have I offended against them by using contemptuous or injurious language toward them?

4. Have I been wanting in my duty to my parents, and judged their actions unlovingly or uncharitably?

5. Have I shown them disrespect by word or act?

6. Have I been ashamed of my parents on account of their poverty or their infirmities?

In regard to the love due to parents and superiors:

1. Have I in earnest and deliberately wished evil to my parents, my pastor, or others in authority over me?

2. Have I ever intentionally grieved them?

3. Have I neglected to succor my parents in their necessities, although it was within my power to do so?

4. Have I injured them in any manner through my own fault?

5. Have I shown impatience at the rules made by my parents and superiors, or irritability at their failings?

6. Have I neglected to pray for my parents and my pastor?

In regard to the obedience due to parents and superiors:

1. Have I been disobedient to my parents, my confessor, or my superiors, in any important matter?

2. Have I obeyed their directions or admonitions grudgingly, or neglected them altogether, in minor matters?

3. Have I shown annoyance at their advice and paid little heed to it?

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

1. Have I been guilty of injuring any one's health through culpable negligence, through quarrels or unkind treatment?

2. Have I shown enmity or rancor toward my neighbor, as, for instance, by refusing to return his greeting?

3. Have I uttered imprecations and evil wishes against my neighbor?

4. Have I taken little or no pains to suppress feelings of hatred and hostility?

5. Have I been guilty of quarrelling with my neighbor, and how often?

6. Have I punished children when I was angry?

7. Have I rejoiced in my neighbor's adversity?

8. Have I neglected to give alms through avarice, or through indolence omitted any work of mercy that I ought to have performed?

9. Have I done anything in word or deed which I foresaw would cause my neighbor to sin, such as speaking improperly in the presence of children, dressing indecorously, etc.?

10. Have I actually tempted another to commit a deadly sin, and if so, what sin?

11. How often have I led my neighbor to commit a venial sin?

12. Have I ever intentionally led him to do wrong?

Sins against one's own life:

1. Have I injured my health by indulging to an excess in amusements, by intemperance, or outbursts of anger?

2. Have I when vexed and impatient desired my own death?

3. Have I eaten or drunk immoderately, or studied my palate too carefully?

4. Have I not sometimes injured my health through want of ordinary prudence and precaution?

5. Have I often given way to anger and impatience?

6. Have I often yielded to dejection and sadness?

THE SIXTH AND NINTH COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.

On our conduct in regard to purity.

Impure thoughts:

1. Have I with pleasure allowed my thoughts to dwell on impure subjects?

2. Have I consented to unchaste suggestions and temptations instead of banishing them instantly from my mind?

3. Have I wished to look at unchaste objects, or to take improper liberties?

Impure words:

1. Have I talked in an unchaste manner?

2. Have I taken pleasure in listening to unclean conversation?

Impure actions:

1. Have I willingly, and with a sinful pleasure looked at immodest things? Committed an immodest act?

2. Have I read books of an immoral tendency?

3. Have I dressed immodestly or with excessive finery simply to attract admiration?

4. Have I sinned through undue familiarity with persons of the other sex, or allowing improper liberties to be taken with me?

5. Have I been careful to avoid persons and places which may be, or have been, occasions of sin for me?

6. Have I been to dances and plays of a dangerous nature, and how often?

THE SEVENTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS OF GOD.

On our conduct in regard to the property of others.

1. Have I been guilty of causing any considerable damage to my neighbor in his house or property?

2. For how long have I wilfully delayed to make due satisfaction and restitution?

3. Have I when at home pilfered trifling sums or things to eat?

4. Have I disposed of things belonging to my employers or others without their knowledge? And if money, to what amount?

5. Have I desired my neighbor's goods, not caring whether I acquired them justly or unjustly?

6. Have I wasted my money in prodigal expenditure, as, for instance, on dress and finery?

7. Have I through my negligence, indifference, or indolence caused loss, even to a slight extent, to my employers or relatives?

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT OF GOD

On our conduct in regard to truth.

1. Have I ever borne false witness in a court of law?

2. Have I told a falsehood in any matter of consequence?

3. Have I entertained without sufficient ground a bad opinion of my neighbor and taken his wrongdoings for granted through rash judgment?

4. Have I calumniated my neighbor, accusing him of wrongdoing of which I did not know him to be guilty?

5. Have I injured my neighbor's good name and lessened his reputation in any great measure by detraction?

6. Have I for any length of time voluntarily neglected to make good the injury done him, to the best of my ability?

7. Have I written anonymous letters in abuse of any one, or to cause misunderstanding and quarrels?

8. Have I repeated to my neighbor the ill that I heard said of him?

9. How often have I said what was not quite true to save myself from blame, or in a joke?

10. Have I entertained unfounded suspicions of my neighbor?

11. Have I judged uncharitably of the actions of others?

12. Have I published the faults and misdeeds of others without necessity?

13. Have I been guilty of deceit, insincerity, flattery, or hypocrisy? How often?

THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE CHURCH.

1. Have I deliberately and without sufficient reason eaten meat on abstinence days?

2. Have I, being at least twenty-one years of age, eaten more than one full meal on the fasts of the Church?

3. Have I listened to the addresses of a non-Catholic with a view to marriage?

AN ACT OF CONTRITION.

O MY God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

ANOTHER ACT OF CONTRITION.

O MY God, I detest these and all other sins which I have committed against Thy divine Majesty. I am extremely sorry that I have sinned, because Thou art infinitely good, and sin displeases Thee. I love Thee with my whole heart, and firmly purpose, by the help of Thy grace, never more to offend Thee. I resolve to avoid the occasions of sin; I will confess my sins, and will endeavor to make satisfaction for them. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy, and pardon me, a wretched sinner, I beseech Thee, in the name of Jesus, Who shed His most precious blood for my salvation.

Or:

O MY dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, behold Thy poor sinful child prostrate at Thy feet. Alas! I have indeed reason to blush with shame in Thy presence. Thou hast conferred upon me innumerable benefits; Thou camest down Thyself from heaven to earth, and didst suffer so many and so great pains for my sake, finally laying down Thy life for me; and I have been so ungrateful; I have done so much that is evil in Thy sight. If Thou hadst punished me, O just God, as Thou didst the wicked angels after the first sin, how wretched would be my lot now and to all eternity. But Thou wert ever and still art full of loving-kindness and compassion toward me, Thy ungrateful child. I am truly sorry, O dearest Jesus, for having offended Thee so often and so grievously. How earnestly I now desire that I had always loved Thee with my whole heart, O supreme and adorable God! I love Thee above all things.

RESOLUTION OF AMENDMENT.

I HUMBLY beseech Thee, my Lord and Saviour, mercifully to forgive me, and to receive me once more into Thy favor. I detest and abhor all my sins, and I promise Thee, my God, to do better for the time to come. Henceforth I will love Thee above all things and will avoid all occasions of sin, so that I may not have the misfortune to fall again into my old transgressions. Jesus, mercy! Jesus, my Lord, my God, and my all!