Self-examination before Confession

Now we should diligently read the following self-examination with compunction, offering our lives to the Physician of souls and bodies.

Before making your confession it is imperative that you prepare by making a thorough examination of your life. You must search your life for the sins you have committed since your last confession and for sins that you may never have confessed through shame or forgetfulness. It is essential that you confess every sin you have committed, regardless of how embarrassing it is to do so or how long ago it was that the sin was committed. Sins that are not confessed still have power over you; they still vex you like some terrible disease and gnaw away at you like snakes that you keep swallowing again each time you do not confess them. It is just as the spiritual father says in the exhortation to the penitent: “If thou concealest anything from me, thou hast a double sin. Take heed, therefore, that, having come to the physician, thou go not away unhealed.” In confessing sins it is necessary to be specific enough to let the spiritual father know exactly what the sins are, not general enough to save yourself from embarrassment.

It is essential to remember at all times during your confession that you are confessing your own sins, not those of others. You should explain just enough about the circumstances of your sins so that the father confessor can understand better your sins, but never in this process should you attempt to justify yourself or switch the blame for your sins to someone else. While others do tempt you and even provoke you to sin, you are ultimately responsible if you sin as a result of temptation or provocation. You are forgiven and made holy again by the grace and mercy of God alone. You are never justified through your own feeble arguments and excuses.

Following are questions for self-examination. Use them to prepare for the victorious Mystery of Repentance. Remember that this is indeed a time of victory over sin. To gain the victory it is necessary to face the enemy and to name the sins that have held you under his sway. In this way, through your courage to face the enemy, through your sorrow for and rejection of your sins, through your desire to repent, and most of all through the power of our God over the evil one and all his deceptions, through the power of our God to forgive and to destroy the power of sin over us, you will have the glorious victory and come away from this holy mystery with the strength to live the life our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ has given you.

The purpose of this self-examination is to help you discover each of your sins, so that they can be exposed through confession of them and destroyed once and for all. May God grant you the discernment to make a good and thorough examination of your life, the courage to confess all of your sins, the wisdom to open your life to God's forgiveness and to accept it, and the strength to work with His Divine Grace to live the life in Christ that He has given you in Holy Baptism and to grow in it now and throughout all eternity.

Remember also that the father confessor may not repeat your sins to any other person. If some unscrupulous priest should dare such a sacrilege, it is he who will suffer for his sin, not you. Have faith that God will protect you if from your heart you confess all your sins.