Below is a suggested way of examining your conscience in preparation for a fruitful confession of sin. It focuses on the Ten Commandments and gives examples of the kinds of sins that tend to be committed against each of those divine precepts.

1. I am the LORD your God, you shall not have false gods before me.
   • Have I rejected God's revelation as it comes to me through the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church?
   • Have I served money, power, sexuality, or anyother lessergood as if it were the supreme good to be sought?
   • Have I despaired of God's help?
   • Have I presumed upon God's mercy?
   • Have I placed faith in superstition?
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
   • Have I disrespected the holiness of God and of things or persons specially associated with God?
   • Have I made false oaths or failed to keep vows made in God's sight?
3. You shall keep holy the Sabbath day.
   • Have I failed trough my own fault to worship God on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation?
   • Have I kept Sunday holy b y using it as a time for recreation and family, as a day of charitable activity, and by makiong extra time for prayer?
   • Have I rested sufficiently to renew me for the tasks of the remainder of the week?
   • Do I pray regularly and attentively throughout the week?
4. You shall honor your father and your mother.
   • Have I fulfilled obligations toward parents, especially in their advancing years?
   • Have I been respectfully obedient to those who are legitimate authorities in mt life?
5. You shall not kill.
   Have I contributed to or concurred in any way with the taking of human life through abortion, euthanasia, or other threats to human life?
   • Have I done damage to another's reputation or well being in any way?
   • Have I jeopardized my own well being through use of alcohol, drugs, or some other self destructive behavior?
   • Have I wished for ill fate to befall another?
   • Have I done anything that gives bad example to others and might lead them to fall into sin themselves?
6. You shall not commit adultery.
   • Have I engaged in willful sexual intercourse outside of marriage?
   • Withing marriage have I engaged in sexual activity without regard for expressing true love for my spouse or without openness to the possibility of receiving the gift of humanlife?
   • Have I been sexually impure with another or with myself?
   • Has my marriage been celebrated in the Catholic Church or with the permission of the Catholic Church?
7. You shall not steal.
   • Have I taken the goods of another or done willful damage to them?
   • Have I taken the intellectual property of others, by taking their ideas without giving credit?
   • Have I deprived others of a just wage or have I failed to give my emplower a day's work for a day's pay?
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
   • Have I told serious lies?
   • Have I gossiped?
   • Have I disclosed the faults of another without serious reason to do so?
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's spouse.
   • Have I pursued or entertained lustful thoughts?
   • Have I been careful about the sexual content of materials I have read or viewed?
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
    • Have I respected the property of others?
    • Have I failed to share my resources with those less fortunate than me?
    • Have I been discontent with my owm blessings from God and envied those of my neighbor?

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