In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this video we want to teach an easy and simple way to do an examination of conscience
based specifically on the seven deadly sins or capital sins.
Let's remember that the examination of conscience is about remembering the sins committed
and how many times each sin was done since the last good confession. Naturally, the
examination of conscience is done before going to the sacrament of reconciliation with a priest.
The examination of conscience must be done with diligence, seriously and sincerely; but without
being distressed. The confession is not torment or torture, but an act of trust based on confidence
and love for God. This is not to torment the soul, but to give to God an account of our sins.
We recommend not to omit anything because of the fact of being ashamed or afraid.
The easiest way to start doing this is by asking ourselves questions that will help us to determine
the particular attitudes, wishes and reasons which took us to sin.
For each capital sin we will explain its definition to the point,
then we will ask questions regarding that capital sin and for each question please write your
answers, which you then bring to the priest in the sacrament of reconciliation and read them.
After confessing your sins to the priest you can destroy your answers.
The deadly or capital sin of pride is the too good opinion that one has of oneself.
It is the excessive admiration of oneself. Pride makes one to be his own law,
his own judge on questions about morality and his own God. Pride begets censorship, slander,
hurtful phrases and defamation of the personality of others, which inflates more our “EGO”.
Pride makes you qualify those who do not agree with you as fools. Let us ask ourselves:
Do I assume attitudes of bragging or boasting?
Does it produce conceit when one speaks about me?
Am I perhaps hypocritical?
Do I pretend to be what I’m not?
Am I stubborn?
Do I refuse to relinquish my will or whim?
Do I never accept the probability that I could be wrong?
Am I willful? Does everything cause me resentment that contradicts my will?
Do I fight every time my desires are threatened?
Am I disobedient? Am I reluctant to submit to the decisions of those who are legitimately my superiors?
Do I refuse to submit to the Will of God?
The deadly or capital sin of greed is the disordered attachment to riches.
It's the perversion of the right that God has given us to possess things. Let us ask ourselves:
Do I want to have money just to have it?
Do I wish to have it as a means to achieve a purpose, such as meet the needs of my spirit and body?
Do I lack honesty? To what extent and in what form?
Do I correspond with all honesty, in my work performance with the payment I get?
How do I use the money that I gain?
Do I share the money with my family?
Do I feel attachment to money itself?
To what degree do I love luxury?
In what way do I save money?
Do I do business in a dishonest way or the fact that a business does things in a dishonest way does not stop me in order to make and earn money?
Do I try to deceive myself and "close my eyes" in cases like these?
Do I call saving what is stinginess?
When it comes to businesses that can let me get considerable profits,
but they are obviously in bad faith, do I try to justify myself?
Do I confuse what is unreasonable hoarding, with what it is to assure the proper
future of myself and my family?
If at the moment I have no money, nor any economic good, how far would I go to get it?
Would I use dishonest means to achieve it?
The deadly or capital sin of lust is the disorderly fondness for the pleasures of
the flesh. It is the excessive desire for the pleasures of the flesh.
Let us ask ourselves:
Am I guilty of lust in any form?
Do I try to justify myself when I unleash my sexual appetite, telling myself that
my excesses are “necessary for health” or are the expression of my individuality?
Do I have extramarital sex, in other words when a married person engages in sexual activity with
someone other than their spouse?
If I am married, do I really
believe that lust is love?
Do I know at the bottom of myself that lust is not love and that love is not just sex?
Do I believe that sexuality is only a part of love,
and that it is manifested in a marriage only?
Is it possible that God, as I know Him, grants to a person what he asks for,
who is relaxed in his sexual customs, whether inside or outside of marriage?
Would God approve of my sexual habits?
Have I committed excesses of lust that have affected my reason in any of the following ways:
Perverting my way of seeing and understanding, so that I could not discern the truth?
Diminishing my prudence and consequently damaging my sense of values,
with the result of committing mistakes?
Loving my selfishness and as a result, lack of consideration on my part?
Weakening my will until I lose the power to make a decision and become fickle?
The deadly or capital sin of envy is disgust for another’s good.
Let us ask ourselves:
Does it bother me that others are happy or have successes in a way
that this happiness or success was something they had taken from me?
Does it cause me to resent those who are more intelligent than I, because I envy that they are?
Do I censor what others do, because I would like to have done it,
for the honor or the prestige that it brings?
Am I envious to the point of trying to diminish someone’s personality,
scheming insidiously against him?
Do I spread gossip?
Do I think envious people are those who call the ones who try to fulfill the precepts of their
religion hypocrites? Am I guilty of this?
Do I consider to be conceited those persons
who are quite polite or educated, because I envy these advantages?
Is the appreciation that I show for others legitimate?
Do I envy someone for any of the reasons mentioned above or any other?
The deadly or capital sin of anger is rage, anger, desire for vengeance and
irritation. It is the disordered behavior of the offended soul. Annoyance. Let us ask ourselves:
Do I let myself get carried away by anger?
Do I have outbursts of anger?
Do I have desires for revenge?
Do I resort to violence?
Am I excessively susceptible, sensitive, or impatient?
Do I get bothered by anything?
Do I murmur or grumble?
Do I ignore that anger is an obstacle for the balance of the personality and for spiritual development?
Do I realize that anger breaks the mental balance and consequently, prevents me from making decisions correctly?
Do I let anger drive me when I know that it blinds me to the rights of others?
How can I justify myself even in the most insignificant tantrum,
when I know that anger breaks the concentration that I need to be able to do the Will of God?
Do I get upset with others because they are upset with me?
Can I expect the Serenity of God to come to my soul,
while it is subject to my bouts of anger, sometimes motivated by insignificant motives?
The deadly or capital sin of gluttony is the lack of moderation with food or drink.
It is the abuse of the pleasure that God has given to eat and drink for our survival.
Am I weakened morally or intellectually because of my excesses with food or drink?
Am I accustomed to eating with excess, enslaving myself to the pleasures of food?
Do I believe the fact of eating or drinking with excess does not affect the morality in my life?
Have I drank or eaten with such excess that I have vomited, then continued drinking or eating?
Do I drink to such excess that it comes to affect me in any of the following ways:
Deteriorates my mind or my personality?
Directly affects my ability to concentrate, my memory and my way of judging things?
I lose my dignity and my social responsibility?
Becomes a chronic state of despair in my life?
Considerably weakens my will?
Comes to dominate in me a materialistic concept of life?
The deadly or capital sin of laziness is the vice that leads us away from work and effort.
It is the disease of the will that makes us neglect our duty.
Let us ask ourselves:
Am I lazy?
Am I given to indifference when it comes to doing things?
Am I lukewarm or careless in my prayers?
Do I despise discipline?
Do I prefer to read a novel rather than something that requires mental effort?
Do I neglect to carry out what is morally or spiritually difficult?
Am I careless?
Do I dislike what takes effort?
Do I get distracted easily by the things that are temporal
rather than those things that are spiritual?
Is my laziness at the level of carelessly performing my work?
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.