The examination of conscience is the heart of preparation for confession — and the part that most Catholics rush through, or do incompletely, or skip entirely. It's understandable: looking honestly at your own life is uncomfortable. But it's also where the real work of conversion happens.

This guide gives you a thorough, practical examination of conscience to use before your next confession. It covers the Ten Commandments in depth — with specific questions for each — and includes a shorter examination based on the Beatitudes, which reaches the interior attitudes beneath the visible acts. It's written for adults, including those returning to confession after a long absence.

For a complete guide to the entire process of preparing for and making a good confession, see our step-by-step guide to Catholic confession.

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What Is an Examination of Conscience?

An examination of conscience is a prayerful, deliberate review of your thoughts, words, actions, and failures to act — measured against the moral law and the teachings of the Church. It is not self-criticism for its own sake, and it is not a performance. It is an act of honest self-knowledge in the presence of God.

St. Ignatius of Loyola made the daily examination of conscience — the examen — a cornerstone of Jesuit spirituality for a reason: without regular honest self-appraisal, we lose the ability to see ourselves clearly. We adapt to our own compromises. We stop noticing what has become habitual.

"Know yourself as God knows you — not as you wish to be, but as you are."

The examination before confession is more focused than the daily examen: it covers the period since your last confession, and its purpose is to identify what needs to be brought to the sacrament. But the same spirit applies — honest attention, not scrupulosity, not minimizing, not explaining away.

How to Begin

Set aside 15–30 minutes in a quiet place. Begin with a short prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to help you see clearly. Something simple works:

Opening Prayer

"Come, Holy Spirit. Enlighten my mind so that I may know my sins clearly. Soften my heart so that I may be truly sorry for them. Give me the grace to confess them honestly and to amend my life. Amen."

Then go through the commandments below — slowly, not as a checklist to complete, but as an invitation to remember honestly. Don't rush past areas that feel uncomfortable. Those are often exactly where the examination needs to dwell.

Examination Based on the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments remain the primary framework the Church provides for moral self-examination. They cover our obligations to God (commandments 1–3) and to our neighbors and ourselves (commandments 4–10).

First Commandment — You shall have no other gods before me
  • Have I doubted or denied my faith? Have I been ashamed of my Catholic beliefs when challenged?
  • Have I given more practical trust to money, career, status, or another person than to God — treating these as what I ultimately depend on?
  • Have I consulted horoscopes, psychics, tarot cards, or engaged in occult practices, even casually or "for fun"?
  • Have I neglected prayer for an extended period — weeks or months passing with no real conversation with God?
  • Have I placed excessive and disordered importance on superstitions, lucky charms, or magical thinking?
  • Have I been indifferent to God — not denying him, but not seeking him either?
Second Commandment — You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
  • Have I used God's name, or Jesus's name, as an exclamation or curse?
  • Have I spoken about sacred things — the sacraments, the Eucharist, the Church — with contempt or mockery?
  • Have I made promises or oaths invoking God's name and then broken them?
  • Have I blasphemed — spoken against God, the Virgin Mary, or the saints in a way that shows contempt for them?
Third Commandment — Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy
  • Have I deliberately missed Mass on a Sunday or holy day of obligation without a serious reason (illness, caring for a dependent, no access to Mass)?
  • Have I arrived late to Mass habitually, or left early without a serious reason?
  • Have I been mentally absent during Mass — distracted, scrolling my phone, treating it as an obligation to endure rather than worship to offer?
  • Have I received Holy Communion while aware of being in a state of mortal sin, without first going to confession?
  • Have I taken Sunday as a day genuinely oriented toward God and rest, or did I spend it entirely on work or entertainment with no thought of God?
Fourth Commandment — Honor your father and your mother
  • Have I treated my parents with contempt, rudeness, or deliberate cruelty?
  • Have I neglected my aging parents — their physical needs, their loneliness, or their spiritual wellbeing?
  • If I am a parent: Have I failed to provide for my children's basic needs — food, safety, education, healthcare?
  • Have I neglected my children's religious formation — not teaching them to pray, not bringing them to Mass, not modeling faith?
  • Have I been excessively harsh, critical, or punitive with my children in ways that wound rather than correct?
  • Have I shown disrespect for legitimate civil authority or employers in ways that go beyond honest disagreement?
Fifth Commandment — You shall not kill
  • Have I physically harmed another person deliberately?
  • Have I harbored sustained hatred, deep resentment, or a genuine desire for harm against anyone?
  • Have I refused to forgive someone after a significant period of time, nursing the wound instead of working toward reconciliation?
  • Have I engaged in gossip, detraction, or slander that damaged someone's reputation or relationships?
  • Have I used cutting words, public humiliation, or emotional cruelty against another person?
  • Have I abused alcohol or drugs in ways that harmed my health, my relationships, or my responsibilities?
  • Have I driven recklessly, putting others at risk?
  • Have I had thoughts of harming myself and acted on them?
Sixth and Ninth Commandments — Purity in act and thought
  • Have I engaged in sexual activity outside of marriage?
  • If married: have I been unfaithful to my spouse — physically or emotionally?
  • Have I used pornography? Have I done so habitually?
  • Have I deliberately entertained impure thoughts or fantasies — not passing temptations but thoughts I willingly sustained?
  • Have I used contraception in ways contrary to Church teaching?
  • Have I encouraged or facilitated another person's impurity — through the media I recommended, the content I created or shared, or direct encouragement?
  • Have I been immodest in dress, speech, or behavior in ways that were deliberately provocative?
Seventh and Tenth Commandments — Honesty with property and possessions
  • Have I stolen? Have I shoplifted, taken things from work, or taken something that wasn't mine to take?
  • Have I cheated — on taxes, in business dealings, in academic work, in games or competitions?
  • Have I defrauded someone — charging for work not done, misrepresenting what I sold, or failing to disclose material information?
  • Have I failed to return something borrowed or to pay a debt I was able to pay?
  • Have I damaged another's property and failed to repair or compensate for it?
  • Have I been consumed by envy — not just noticing others' good fortune, but resenting it, being genuinely bitter about it?
  • Have I given to those in need within my means, or have I been consistently indifferent to genuine poverty around me?
Eighth Commandment — Truth in word and deed
  • Have I lied deliberately — to gain something, to avoid consequences, or to hurt someone?
  • Have I exaggerated or distorted facts in ways that created false impressions?
  • Have I broken a confidence that was explicitly or implicitly entrusted to me?
  • Have I revealed another person's faults or failures to someone who had no need to know (detraction)?
  • Have I made false accusations against someone, or spread unverified rumors?
  • Have I been deceptive in my professional or business communications?
  • Have I presented myself online or to others in ways I knew were false?
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Examination Based on the Beatitudes

The Ten Commandments identify specific acts and omissions. The Beatitudes — Christ's own portrait of the blessed life from the Sermon on the Mount — reach deeper, into the dispositions, attitudes, and interior orientations that produce those acts. An examination based on the Beatitudes asks not just what did I do but who am I becoming?

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Do I recognize my dependence on God, or do I live as if my competence, intelligence, and resources are fundamentally mine? Do I approach God with the openness of someone who needs him, or with the self-sufficiency of someone who only calls on him when things go wrong?

Blessed are those who mourn

Am I able to grieve my sin — not just regret consequences, but mourn the offense against God and the harm done to others? Or have I become numb, treating sin as error rather than rupture?

Blessed are the meek

Do I approach others with gentleness and patience, or do I use my strength — physical, financial, rhetorical — to dominate, intimidate, or control? Have I been harsh where mercy was called for?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Do I have a genuine longing to do what is right — to grow in virtue, to become the person God made me to be? Or is my Christianity primarily external: attending Mass, avoiding the worst sins, doing just enough?

Blessed are the merciful

Have I extended genuine mercy to those who wronged me, or to those in difficult circumstances? Or have I been quick to judge, slow to forgive, and inclined to see people get what they deserve?

Blessed are the pure in heart

Is there integrity between my interior and exterior life? Am I the same person in private as in public? Or do I present a version of myself in church, online, and at work that conceals a different interior reality?

Blessed are the peacemakers

Have I worked to reconcile conflicts and heal divisions — in my family, my workplace, my community? Or have I stirred up strife, taken sides carelessly, or avoided the hard work of reconciliation?

Common Struggles with the Examination

Most people encounter at least one of these challenges when doing an honest examination. Recognizing them helps.

Minimizing

"It wasn't that bad." "Compared to what other people do, this is nothing." The standard isn't other people. The examination measures your life against the Gospel — not against the average. When you catch yourself making comparisons, that's often a sign you've found something worth examining more closely.

Rationalizing

"I had a reason." "She pushed me to it." "I was under stress." Context matters morally — it can reduce culpability, and a confessor can help you sort that out. But if your examination consists primarily of building a case for why you're not responsible, you're not examining your conscience, you're defending yourself.

Scrupulosity

The opposite problem: treating every imperfection as mortal sin, living in constant anxiety about your state of soul. Scrupulosity is not holiness. It's a distortion that actually impedes growth by keeping the focus on self rather than on God. If you struggle with this, speak to your confessor directly — it's a recognized spiritual condition with guidance available.

Forgetting the good you failed to do

Sins of omission — what we failed to do when we had the duty and capacity — are real sins. The Church and Scripture are both clear: knowing the right thing to do and not doing it is sin (James 4:17). Include in your examination not just what you did wrong but where you failed to act, give, speak, or love when you should have.

How Confessio Helps

Going through an examination like this alone can be clarifying — but it can also be difficult. Some people know they need to confess something but struggle to put it into honest language. Others feel the weight of years of absence and don't know where to begin. Others want to examine themselves more thoroughly than a list can capture, specific to their actual life and circumstances.

Confessio is an AI spiritual companion built specifically for Catholics preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In a private, unhurried conversation, Confessio can:

Confessio does not replace the sacrament — absolution belongs to the priest, acting in the person of Christ. But for the preparation that happens before you step into the confessional, it offers something genuinely useful: a thoughtful, private space to examine yourself honestly.

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A Word for Those Returning After Years Away

If you're preparing for confession after a long absence — years, or even decades — the examination can feel overwhelming. The temptation is either to enumerate everything meticulously (paralyzing) or to cover it all with a vague "and all my sins of my whole life" (insufficient for mortal sins).

The practical guidance: identify the mortal sins (grave matter, known at the time, freely chosen) and confess them specifically, with approximate frequency if you can estimate it. Venial sins and general patterns of weakness can be mentioned more broadly. The priest is there to help — if you're not sure whether something is mortal or venial, say so, and he will guide you.

"The examination is not a courtroom. It is a preparation for an encounter with mercy."

The goal is not to produce a perfect accounting — it's to come to confession honestly, with whatever you have. God's mercy is not rationed. It is given freely to those who seek it sincerely. The examination exists to help you seek it well.

Once your examination is complete, you'll close with the Act of Contrition — the prayer that gathers your sorrow and expresses it to God before you enter the confessional. For the full text in every version, with a line-by-line explanation of what it means, see our complete guide to the Act of Contrition.