The Examination of Conscience and the Resolution to Amend
The Voice of Christ
ABOVE all, God’s priest should approach the celebration and reception of this Sacrament with the
deepest humility of heart and suppliant reverence, with complete faith and the pious intention of
giving honor to God.
Carefully examine your conscience, then. Cleanse and purify it to the best of your power by
true contrition and humble confession, that you may have no burden, know of no remorse, and thus
be free to come near. Let the memory of all your sins grieve you, and especially lament and bewail
your daily transgressions. Then if time permits, confess to God in the secret depths of your heart
all the miseries your passions have caused.
Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified,
so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so often occupied in many vain
fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within, so prone to laughter and
dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh
and so cool to austerity and zeal, so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow
to embrace humiliation and dejection, so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so
tenacious in keeping, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so undisciplined in character,
so disordered in action, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, so prompt to rest and so
slow to labor, so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to
end them, so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the office, so lukewarm in celebrating,
so heartless in receiving, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected, so quickly moved to
anger, so apt to take offense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so happy in
prosperity and so weak in adversity, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them
into action.
When you have confessed and deplored these and other faults with sorrow and great displeasure
because of your weakness, be firmly determined to amend your life day by day and to advance in
goodness. Then, with complete resignation and with your entire will offer yourself upon the altar
of your heart as an everlasting sacrifice to the honor of My name, by entrusting with faith both
body and soul to My care, that thus you may be considered worthy to draw near and offer sacrifice
to God and profitably receive the Sacrament of My Body. For there is no more worthy offering,
no greater satisfaction for washing away sin than to offer yourself purely and entirely to God with
the offering of the Body of Christ in Mass and Communion.
If a man does what he can and is truly penitent, however often he comes to Me for grace and
pardon, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn
from his way and live”; I will no longer remember his sins, but all will be forgiven him.