How Much Time Should Someone Spend Examing Their Concience?

[Angel7]

Is it wrong for someone to spend no time examining their concience before Confessing their sins?

Is there anything else I should do before confessing my sins?

 

[baltobetsy]

Ideally, one should spend a minute or two every day on the examination of conscience. Keep a little diary so you won’t forget when confession time comes. Then you’ll only need another couple of minutes before confession to review your notes. This is especially important if you don’t confess often (don’t your parents restrict you?). It’s good to use abbreviations or code so if your notes are discovered, no one will know what they are about.

If you have not done this, you’ll need a few more minutes right before confession. If you have mortal sins, they should be very obvious to you and come immediately to mind. Then you can pick a couple of venial sins for which you are particularly sorry and add them in.

Before it all, it is very good to pray for light to know your sins and for true contrition. I always pray to the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother. Your guardian angel can also help.

Betsy

 

[Hiskid1973]

Is it wrong for someone to spend no time examining their concience before Confessing their sins?

Is there anything else I should do before confessing my sins?

The Holy Spirit shines a good flashlight when we ask Him to search our heart…If you want to listen He will reveal things right off the bat those need to be attended to…My wife and I have devotions together every night before we go to bed…It is a good time to clean house of anything that needs attention…It is good to sleep at night with great peace…It’s good to keep the slate clean daily as to not hinder hearing from the Holy Spirit…Bright all your though tlife and attitudes under obedience to Christ… I follow what is called "Practicing the presence of Christ…Where you always are mindeful of Jesus being aware of all your thoughts/attitudes what you see and say…It helps me to monitor how I respond to people/situations…May favorite verses on the subject from 1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.

Grace and peace to you as you desire to walk closer to the Lord…

 

[flyingfish]

Is it wrong for someone to spend no time examining their concience before Confessing their sins?

Is there anything else I should do before confessing my sins?

In your other post you ask if it could be sinful, even mortally sinful, to pray in the bathroom. It’s obvious you have a serious issue with scrupulosity. For you, examining your conscience can easily turn into an OCD fit.

I disagree with the poster who told you to make a diary, the last thing a scrupulous person needs is to focus on making giant lists for confession.

liguori.org/productdetails.cfm?sku=815768 A book by a priest for scrupulous people, which addresses these sorts of questions.

 

[Angel7]

Since I am restricted in the number Of Confessions I can go to. I was hoping To Go To Confession Right After The Holy Mass. I don’t want to examine my conscience During The Mass. I just want to make A Quick Confession After The Mass.

However, this doesn’t leave me with much time to examine my conscience.

 

[IrishAm]

Since I am restricted in the number Of Confessions I can go to. I was hoping To Go To Confession Right After The Holy Mass. I don’t want to examine my conscience During The Mass. I just want to make A Quick Confession After The Mass.

However, this doesn’t leave me with much time to examine my conscience.

Why could you not examine your conscience the night before, the day before, the week before you seemingly “pop into confession” after Mass? (I’m not even going to ask why you would not want to go to confessiohn BEFORE Mass, rather than afterwards . . .)

I start preparing for my monthly confession a week ahead of time. I pray, I think, I take notes. Then I go to confession.

And I’m not at all scrupulous.

 

[puzzleannie]

as long as it takes?
if you form the habit of the daily examen, reviewing your day in prayer every night before bed, recalling both the good and bad, joys and sorrows, sins and omissions and good acts, expressing gratitude and contrition, you will not have hard time recalling your sins before confession. Get any guide that leads you through the 10 commandments. If it is your first time, you may have to pray on this and prepare for several days. Someone who struggles with scruples or OCD should find one good priest for confession and spiritual direction specifically on this problem and follow his counsel precisely, and avoid asking for outside advice on matters of sin and confession.

 

[Loboto-Me]

For those who examine their conscience each night, does it stop you from going to receive on Sunday?

I ask because confession is done only about every 3 weeks for my home. The reason is that confession is on Saturday evening here and the Mass afterwards is very very “progressive” which I don’t prefer. The band (yes, the band) practices beforehand while we try to pray, the people are talking in the pews… you get my drift. I much prefer to go to a Mass which is reverant, but due to my husband’s work we can’t go to a different confession as the time is at 4 and we’d not make it (he’s the one who drives)

I tried examining during the week a few weeks back and even though I thought of sins from wayyy in the past ( childhood and 13 yrs ago) it prevented me from receiving last week. Scruples? Perhaps. Although I think it’s healthy to have a certain amount of scrupulocity as it “keeps us honest”, but I fear that for me, this could develop into an impediment from receiving.

How can I balance examination of conscience and receiving while I wait for confession?

PS: If I have what I think is a mortal sin on my conscience, I beg my husband that we go earlier than our scheduled times.

 

[Teelynn]

For those who examine their conscience each night, does it stop you from going to receive on Sunday?

I ask because confession is done only about every 3 weeks for my home. The reason is that confession is on Saturday evening here and the Mass afterwards is very very “progressive” which I don’t prefer. The band (yes, the band) practices beforehand while we try to pray, the people are talking in the pews… you get my drift. I much prefer to go to a Mass which is reverant, but due to my husband’s work we can’t go to a different confession as the time is at 4 and we’d not make it (he’s the one who drives)

I tried examining during the week a few weeks back and even though I thought of sins from wayyy in the past ( childhood and 13 yrs ago) it prevented me from receiving last week. Scruples? Perhaps. Although I think it’s healthy to have a certain amount of scrupulocity as it “keeps us honest”, but I fear that for me, this could develop into an impediment from receiving.

How can I balance examination of conscience and receiving while I wait for confession?

PS: If I have what I think is a mortal sin on my conscience, I beg my husband that we go earlier than our scheduled times.

If I am correct on this, (someone jump in please and correct me if I’m wrong) at the end of every confession doesn’t one say, “I am sorry for these and for all the sins I cannot now remember”? I do believe you are forgiven for everything that does not come to mind. It is necessary, however, to give sufficient time and prayer to examine one’s conscience, and if after that and after your confession, something comes to mind, it is good to mention it in your next confession, but shouldn’t stop you from receiving communion. The same thing has happened to me many times, and what I do is say “I am sorry for these and also for the sin(s) of ___________ which has come to mind after my last confession.” (whether I think it may be a mortal or venial sin, I still mention it) I think as long as we don’t try to conceal something and are perfectly honest with ourselves, then **that’s all that matters to Jesus. WE ARE FORGIVEN!! **

 

[Loboto-Me]

That makes perfect sense to me. I didn’t know about these last words that could be said after confessing the main sins. I’ve always done the sacrament of confession in a pretty non-formal way and wasn’t taught to do it otherwise. I learned the beginnings of my faith in french and in the 70’s and 80’s! and have had to “wing-it” in certain ways after marriage when everything became english for my husband’s sake and because we moved to an english part of the country.

I will try to remember this statement as it does certainly cover those forgotten sins from so far back that pop in my mind when doing a proper examination of conscience.

Thanks

 

[Teelynn]

That makes perfect sense to me. I didn’t know about these last words that could be said after confessing the main sins. I’ve always done the sacrament of confession in a pretty non-formal way and wasn’t taught to do it otherwise. I learned the beginnings of my faith in french and in the 70’s and 80’s! and have had to “wing-it” in certain ways after marriage when everything became english for my husband’s sake and because we moved to an english part of the country.

I will try to remember this statement as it does certainly cover those forgotten sins from so far back that pop in my mind when doing a proper examination of conscience.

Thanks

This is what we were taught as children when making our first confession. “Back in the day” confession was a big deal. (As it should be!) I fully understand though, if you learned in the 70’s and 80’s why the non formal format of confession…the emphasis wasn’t ON confession in the Catholic Church in that time period. You are blessed to have made your confession at all! My daughter and the children her age, were not even offered their first confession before receiving communion. (they said they were “too young to understand”) I have heard a lot of people refer to the kids in that time period as the “lost generation”. Thank the Dear Lord, they are now coming back to teaching them the “real faith”, and not the watered down version.

If you have possibly forgotten past sins,or just call them to mind that you are truly sorry for them, you can mention them this way at the end of your “main” sins. If it works for Jesus, it works for me.

Blessings to you!

 

[Hiskid1973]

**that’s all that matters to Jesus. WE ARE FORGIVEN!! **

Amen…And He remembers no more…As far as the east is from the west…It’s satan who likes to rub our faces in past mistakes…Learn to recognize a voice of condemnation(there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus), over the voice of the Holy Spirit’s conviction as it is NEVER condemning…Great peace to you as you live and grow in Christ…

 

[puzzleannie]

For those who examine their conscience each night, does it stop you from going to receive on Sunday?

Is.

no examining your conscience does not stop you from receiving Holy Communion, mortal sin does. The alternative to not examining your conscience is the possibility of “forgetting” your sins, especially the habitual ones. The daily practice by the way is more often called the examen, similar but not the same as an examination of conscience. It reviews the entire day, not just occasions of sin.

 

[Loboto-Me]

I’ve mentioned several times that this site and its members are teaching me my catechism that was so very lacking in my earlier years

Mortal sin, ah yes… sometimes even my healthy scrupulocity blurs and distresses me in that area. I read one site that helps me figure out what is a mortal sin by going through the 10 commandments, then I read another site and they ask different questions by going through the 10 commandments. Sometimes one site includes things that another site ignores. That’s when I start wondering if my omitting to do a certain thing is actually mortal or venial. The internet can sometimes confuse things.

Examen = thinking about the whole day and how I behaved and thought … got it

 

[Teelynn]

I’ve mentioned several times that this site and its members are teaching me my catechism that was so very lacking in my earlier years

Mortal sin, ah yes… sometimes even my healthy scrupulocity blurs and distresses me in that area. I read one site that helps me figure out what is a mortal sin by going through the 10 commandments, then I read another site and they ask different questions by going through the 10 commandments. Sometimes one site includes things that another site ignores. That’s when I start wondering if my omitting to do a certain thing is actually mortal or venial. The internet can sometimes confuse things.

Examen = thinking about the whole day and how I behaved and thought … got it

And ask the Holy Spirit to help you, He will always GIVE LIGHT TO YOUR MIND!! Before confession and before I examine my conscience, I always say a rosary and ask the Blessed Mother to help me as well. She will never fail to send the Holy Spirit. If you go often enough, sins will kind of “jump out at you” and sometimes right away. You’re doing great!!

Blessings and Prayers