Examination of Conscience

Examination of Conscience
1. I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.
     - Do I give God time every day in prayer?
    - Do I seek to love Him with my whole heart?
    - Have I been involved with superstitious practices or have I been involved with
       the occult?
    - Do I seek to surrender myself to God's Word as taught by the Church?
    - Have I ever deliberately told a lie in Confession or have I withheld a mortal sin
       from the priest in confession?

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
    - Have I used God's name in vain: lightly or carelessly?
    - Have I been angry with God?
    - Have I wished evil upon any other person?
    - Have I insulted a sacred person or abused a sacred object?

3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.
    - Have I deliberately missed Mass on Sundays or Holy Days of Obligation?
    - Have I not kept Sunday as a family day and a day of rest?
    - Do I do needless work on Sunday?
    - Do I make others work on Sunday?

4. Honor your father and your mother.
    - Do I honor and obey my parents?
    - Have I neglected my duties to my spouse and children?
    - Have I given my family good religious example?
    - Do I try to bring peace into my home life?
    - Do I care for my aged and infirm relatives?
    - Do I respect elders?
    - Do I respect my pastor, bishop, and the Pope?

5. You shall not kill.
    - Have I had an abortion or encouraged anyone to have an abortion?
    - Have I physically harmed anyone?
    - Have I abused alcohol or drugs?
    - Did I give scandal to anyone, thereby leading them into sin?
    - Have I been angry or resentful?
    - Have I harbored hatred in my heart?
    - Have I been sterilized for reasons of birth control?
    - Have I encouraged or condoned sterilization?

6. You shall not commit adultery.
    - Have I been faithful to my marriage vows in thought and action?
    - Have I engaged in any sexual activity before marriage or outside of marriage?
    - Have I used any method of contraception or artificial birth control?
    - Has each sexual act in my marriage been open to the transmission of new life?
    - Have I respected all members of the opposite sex, or have I thought of other
      people as objects?
    - Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?
    - Do I seek to be pure in my thoughts, words and actions?
    - Am I careful to dress modestly, so as not to tempt others?
    - Have I been guilty of masturbation with myself?

7. You shall not steal
    - Have I stolen what is not mine?
    - Have I returned or made restitution for what I have stolen?
    - Do I waste time at work, school or at home?
    - Do I gamble excessively, thereby denying my family of their needs?
    - Do I pay my debts promptly?
    - Do I seek to share what I have with the poor?

8. You shall not bear false witness
    - Have I lied?
    - Have I gossiped?
    - Have I harmed someone's reputation?
    - Have I spoken behind someone else's back?
    - Am I critical, negative, or uncharitable in my thoughts of others?
    - Do I keep secret what should be kept confidential?

9. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife.
    - Have I consented to impure thoughts?
    - Have I caused them by impure television, movies, books, magazines or internet?
    - Do I pray at once to banish impure thoughts and temptations?
    - Do I listen to, or engage in, impure conversations or jokes?

10. You shall not desire your neighbor's goods.
    - Am I jealous of what other people have?
    - Do I envy other people's families or possessions?
    - Am I greedy or selfish?
    - Are material possessions the purpose of my life?
    - Do I trust that God will care for all of my material and spiritual need?