Before we go to confession, we should sit quietly and examine our conscience. Our conscience will remind us of the sins we have committed to offend God. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us remember our sins.
We ask ourselves did I disobey any of God’s Commandments.
The Ten Commandments
Questions we should ask ourselves
About God
1. "I, the Lord am your God, you shall not have other gods besides Me.”
Did I miss saying my morning or night prayers? Did I remember to say a prayer during the day?
About keeping the Name of God Holy
2. “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain.”
Did I use Holy Names like “God” or “Jesus” when I should not have used them?
About the Sabbath
3. “Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.”
Did I misbehave during Mass? Was I listening attentively to what the priest was saying? Did I miss Mass without having a good reason?
About our parents
4. “Honor you mother and father.”
Was I rude to my parents? Did I disobey my parents? Did I disobey my teachers? Did I mock my parents? Was I kind to the elderly?
About being kind
5. “You shall not kill.”
Was I mean to anyone? Do I hate anyone? Did I get angry? Did I fight or quarrel? Did I make anyone sin? Did I wish anything bad on anyone?
About being pure
6. “You shall not commit adultery.”
9. "You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”
Did I do anything as was impure? Do I have impure thoughts in my mind? Do I use impure words? Do I look at impure books or anything impure? Did I listen to anything impure?
About being honest7. “You shall not steal.”
10. “You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Did I steal anything? Do I have something that does not belong to me? Did I damage something that belongs to someone else? Was I greedy?
About being truthful
8. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Did I tell any lies? Did I say means things about anyone? Did I listen to unkind words about anyone?
We must be sorry for our sins.
Before our sins can be forgiven, we must be sorry for committing them. We remember how much Jesus loves us, He died on the Cross to forgive our sins.We should desire not to sin again.
We say a prayer called the Act of Contrition. It is a prayer telling God how sorry we are for having sinned and asking Him to give us the strength to resist temptation and not sin again.
An Act of Contrition
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You and I detest all my sins because of Your just punishment but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sins. Amen
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