‹ Prayers

Traditional sacramental guide

Prepare for Confession

Start with a quick examination, or take your time with the full guide.

Start a quick examinationPray the Act of Contrition
Read the full confession guide

My last confession

Opening your saved date…

Optional. Saved only in this browser on this device, separately from your preparation notes. It does not sync to your account. Clearing site data removes it. Browser storage is not encrypted.

Before you begin

Prepare without anxiety

Use this guide when you need help gathering your heart, examining your conscience, speaking plainly in the confessional, or giving thanks after absolution.

The point is not to turn confession into an anxious system. The point is to help you speak plainly, accuse yourself honestly, trust God's mercy, and leave with a real purpose of amendment.

How much time do you have?

Pray first, then examine yourself quietly

Ask for light, ask for sincerity, and then examine yourself without hurry or self-excuse.

Prayer Before Confession

O Jesus, my Saviour, my good Shepherd, I have strayed far from the path that Thou hast marked out for me; I did not follow in Thy footsteps; I wandered into forbidden places.

Repentant and sorrowful, I beg to be admitted again into the fold of Thy faithful followers. I want to confess my sins with the same sincerity as I should wish to do at the moment of my death.

My Jesus, I look to Thee with confidence for the grace to examine my conscience well. O Holy Spirit, come in Thy mercy; enlighten my mind and strengthen my will that I may know my sins, humbly confess them, and sincerely amend my life.

Mary, my Mother, immaculate spouse of the Holy Ghost, refuge of sinners, assist me by thy intercession. Holy angels and saints of God, pray for me. Amen.

Examination of Conscience

Lasance begins with your last confession, then leads you through the commandments, the precepts of the Church, your duties, and the sins that most often pull you back.

Every traditional point is kept, with plain English shown first.

Preliminary examination

  • When was my last confession?
  • Did I make a sincere effort to be sorry for my sins?
  • Did I leave out a mortal sin, either deliberately or because I forgot it?
  • Did I deliberately leave my penance undone, or forget it through carelessness?
  • Have I tried to keep the resolutions I made at my last confession, or ignored them?

Then examine yourself on

  • The Ten Commandments
  • The Commandments of the Church
  • The Seven Capital Sins
  • The duties of your state of life
  • Your ruling passion

Calmly recall the occasions of sin, the company you kept, the places you frequented, and the circumstances that made the fault graver.

Traditional commandment examination

I. Against faith and reverence

  • Have I deliberately doubted a truth of the Catholic faith?
  • Have I complained against God when I suffered or when others prospered?
  • Have I given up hope in God's mercy, or used His mercy as an excuse to keep sinning?
  • Have I trusted fortune-tellers, consulted them, or taken part in superstitious practices?
  • Have I taken part in worship outside the Catholic Church?
  • Have I neglected morning or evening prayer, or avoided religious duties because I feared what others would think?
  • Have I read material that attacks the Catholic faith or promotes atheism?
  • Have I mocked or treated priests, religious, or sacred things with disrespect?

II. The holy name and holy days

  • Have I used God's name disrespectfully or treated anything sacred with contempt?
  • Have I lied under oath, made an oath carelessly, or sworn an oath over something trivial?
  • Have I called down evil on myself or others, or deliberately provoked someone to swear or insult God?
  • Have I missed Mass, deliberately let my attention wander during Mass, or behaved disrespectfully in church?
  • Have I dishonored Sundays or holy days through unnecessary shopping, selling, manual work, or sinful dancing, drinking, gambling, or other misconduct?

III. Duties toward others

  • Have I shown the respect I owe to my parents, employers, and others with legitimate authority?
  • Have I deceived or disobeyed them, or failed to show proper respect to older people?
  • Have I held on to hatred, wanted revenge, refused to forgive, or used words meant to provoke others?
  • Have I harmed others, turned people against each other, treated anyone unjustly or cruelly, or helped bring about someone's death?

IV. Purity, justice, and truth

  • Have I sinned against chastity in my thoughts, words, or actions?
  • Have I stolen, cheated in buying or selling, or damaged someone else's property?
  • Have I lied about someone, exposed another person's sins, judged without enough evidence, or used insulting names?
  • Have I wrongly desired something that belongs to another person?

The commandments in detail

Open a slower commandment-by-commandment examination when the shorter examination is not enough to uncover what needs to be confessed.

9 cards

I

First Commandment

Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

Faith, prayer, reverence, and false spiritual substitutes.

  • Have I deliberately doubted a truth of the faith or complained against God in hardship?
  • Have I given up hope in God's mercy, or used His mercy as an excuse to keep sinning?
  • Have I trusted fortune-tellers, consulted them, or taken part in superstitious practices?
  • Have I neglected morning or evening prayer, or avoided religious duties because I feared what others would think?
  • Have I read material that attacks the Catholic faith or promotes atheism?
  • Have I mocked or treated priests, religious, or sacred things with disrespect?

II

Second Commandment

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Speech about God, oaths, blasphemy, and stirring others to irreverence.

  • Have I used God's name disrespectfully or treated anything sacred with contempt?
  • Have I lied under oath, made an oath carelessly, or sworn an oath over something trivial?
  • Have I called down evil on myself or others, or made fun of sacred things?
  • Have I deliberately provoked someone to swear or insult God?

III

Third Commandment

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

Mass, recollection, and the right use of Sundays and holy days.

  • Have I kept Sundays and holy days of obligation holy?
  • Have I bought or sold things unnecessarily on those days?
  • Have I done or required others to do unnecessary manual work on those days?
  • Have I missed Mass, deliberately let my attention wander during Mass, or behaved disrespectfully in church?
  • Have I dishonored those days through sinful dancing, drinking, gambling, or other misconduct?

IV

Fourth Commandment

Honor thy father and thy mother.

Obedience, gratitude, reverence, and the duties proper to authority and dependence.

  • Have I shown the respect I owe to my parents, employers, and others with legitimate authority?
  • Have I deceived them or disobeyed their rightful directions?
  • Have I failed to show proper respect to older people or those with legitimate authority over me?

V

Fifth Commandment

Thou shalt not kill.

Hatred, revenge, provoking others, and harming body or soul.

  • Have I caused, arranged, wished for, or helped bring about someone's death?
  • Have I held on to hatred, wanted revenge, or refused to forgive someone who hurt me?
  • Have I used words meant to provoke others, harmed them, or turned people against each other?
  • Have I treated anyone unjustly or cruelly, or refused to care about someone in need?

VI and IX

Sixth and Ninth Commandments

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.

Purity in thought, word, desire, company, and deed.

  • Have I sinned against chastity in my thoughts, words, or actions?
  • Have I willingly dwelt on unchaste desires or fantasies, or stayed in situations that lead me to sin?
  • Have I sought out conversations, sounds, images, or places that put my chastity at risk?

VII

Seventh Commandment

Thou shalt not steal.

Property, wages, fair dealing, waste, and dishonest gain.

  • Have I stolen or cheated in buying or selling?
  • Have I misrepresented a product, its price, quantity, or weight?
  • Have I deliberately damaged someone else's property, or ruined it through carelessness?
  • Have I withheld work or money I owed, or failed to return what I took or make up for damage I caused?

VIII

Eighth Commandment

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Truth, reputation, flattery, rash judgment, and harmful speech.

  • Have I lied about someone or deliberately told a lie?
  • Have I used insulting names or exposed another person's sins without a good reason?
  • Have I used dishonest flattery, judged someone without enough evidence, or damaged someone's good name?

X

Tenth Commandment

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.

Interior discontent, grasping desire, and unjust longing for another’s possessions.

  • Have I wrongly desired something that belongs to another person?
  • Have I fed resentment, envy, or greed by dwelling on what others have?
  • Have I let those wrongful desires shape what I say, plan, or do?

Precepts of the Church

  • Have I missed Mass on a Sunday or holy day of obligation without a serious reason?
  • Have I failed to fast or abstain from meat when the Church required it of me?
  • Have I gone a full year without confessing serious sins?
  • Have I failed to receive Holy Communion during the Easter season?
  • Have I refused to support the Church and her pastors fairly according to my means?
  • Have I entered or planned a marriage contrary to Church law, or without the Catholic form or permission required of me?

Church discipline and the way an obligation applies can change. If you are unsure what was required of you, ask a priest rather than deciding your guilt from this guide alone.

Stir up contrition

  • After recalling your sins, how often you committed them, and any circumstances that made them more serious, ask for heartfelt sorrow and a sincere rejection of those sins.
  • True sorrow is essential to a good confession. Keep asking God for it humbly and earnestly.
  • Remember who God is and how good He has been to you: He made you for Himself, redeemed you by His blood, and has been patient with you.
Grave injustices and the works of mercy

Older examinations also ask about the four sins crying to Heaven for vengeance and the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Apply each question only where you had a real duty, opportunity, and freedom to act.

Four sins crying to Heaven for vengeance

  • Have you directly taken innocent human life, or deliberately cooperated in doing so?
  • Have you committed grave sexual sins traditionally described as contrary to nature?
  • Have you oppressed the poor, the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, or anyone unable to defend himself?
  • Have you defrauded laborers, withheld just wages, or used another person’s need to deny what was owed?

Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy

  • Have you failed to instruct the ignorant when charity and duty gave you a real opportunity?
  • Have you failed to counsel the doubtful when you could prudently help?
  • Have you failed to admonish a sinner when charity, duty, and prudence required it?
  • Have you failed to comfort the sorrowful when you could reasonably do so?
  • Have you refused to forgive injuries or continued to nourish revenge?
  • Have you borne wrongs impatiently or repaid injury with injury?
  • Have you neglected to pray for the living and the dead?

Seven Corporal Works of Mercy

  • Have you failed, according to your means and duties, to help feed the hungry?
  • Have you failed, according to your means and duties, to give drink to the thirsty?
  • Have you failed, according to your means and duties, to clothe those in need?
  • Have you failed to welcome or assist the stranger when charity and prudence allowed it?
  • Have you neglected the sick when you had a reasonable duty or opportunity to help?
  • Have you neglected prisoners or those deprived of freedom when you could offer lawful help or prayer?
  • Have you failed to show proper care and reverence for the dead or to console the bereaved?

Accessory to another's sin

Older manuals ask not only what you did, but how you shared in the wrongdoing of others. Examine whether you helped sin along, excused it, or kept silent when you had a duty to resist it.

Have I advised someone to do something sinful?
Have I ordered or pressured someone under my authority to sin?
Have I knowingly agreed to another person's sin?
Have I deliberately provoked someone to sin?
Have I praised or flattered someone for doing something sinful?
Have I hidden another person's sin when I had a duty to make it known?
Have I knowingly joined someone in doing something sinful?
Have I stayed silent when I had a duty to speak against a sin?
Have I defended or made excuses for something sinful?

When to slow down

  • If one commandment keeps pricking the conscience, stay with it longer.
  • If you still feel vague, ask what habit, company, or occasion usually leads to that fall.
  • If another person was harmed, ask whether restitution, apology, or repair is now owed.

The Seven Capital Sins

Open the older root-fault examination when you need to look beneath repeated falls and name the habits that keep feeding them.

4 groups

Pride and seeking praise

  • Have I insisted on getting my own way instead of doing what was right, lawful, or loving?
  • Have I chased praise, resented correction, or looked down on others?
  • Have I refused to admit fault or made excuses when I should have humbly accepted responsibility?

Greed and envy

  • Have I been greedy, hard-hearted, or dishonest about money, possessions, or getting ahead?
  • Have I envied someone else's abilities, success, reputation, or blessings?
  • Have I resented another person's good fortune or secretly enjoyed their failure?

Anger and laziness

  • Have I chosen to hold on to resentment, speak harshly, act impatiently, or refuse forgiveness?
  • Have I neglected my duties through laziness, putting things off, or carelessness about my spiritual life?
  • Have I become careless about prayer, penance, or the work God has given me?

Lust and overindulgence

  • Have I willingly accepted unchaste thoughts, conversations, entertainment, relationships, or actions?
  • Have I failed to act modestly, guard what I look at and listen to, or live chastely when alone?
  • Have I overindulged in food, drink, comfort, or physical pleasure?

Duties of your state in life

Older catechisms press this point hard: you are not judged only by private faults, but also by the duties attached to the place God has actually given you. Examine the obligations of your home, your work, and your present vocation as they truly stand.

Children and others under authority

  • Have I honored, loved, and obeyed my parents or others with legitimate authority when their directions were not sinful?
  • Have I treated them with stubbornness, dishonesty, ingratitude, or contempt?
  • Have I rejected correction, resisted fair discipline, or led younger siblings or friends into sin by my example?

Parents, guardians, and caregivers

  • Have I cared for those entrusted to me, including their physical needs, spiritual life, prayer, discipline, and the example I give?
  • Have I failed to correct them when I should, or corrected them with anger, harshness, or favoritism?
  • Have I made it harder for my children, employees, or others in my care to attend Mass, observe holy days, or live their Catholic faith?
  • Have I pressured someone to choose a way of life for my own selfish or worldly reasons, or resisted God's call for someone in my care?

Husbands and wives

  • Have I honored the holiness of marriage through faithfulness, honesty, patience, and respect?
  • Have I failed to be patient and loving with my spouse's weaknesses, or let bitterness, contempt, or coldness take over our home?
  • Have I neglected to help my spouse grow closer to God, or failed to raise our children to know, love, and reverence Him?

Work, wages, and daily labor

  • Have I worked honestly, kept my word, and given a fair day's work instead of being idle, wasteful, or dishonest?
  • Have I followed rightful instructions at work, or been dishonest, careless, or lazy with what was entrusted to me?
  • If I employ others, have I been fair about wages, debts, workloads, and promises?
  • Have I taken advantage of someone's need, delayed paying what I owed, or called unfair treatment 'just business'?

Teachers, employers, and others in authority

  • Have I treated authority as a responsibility entrusted by God, or used it to excuse pride, harshness, or neglect?
  • Have I failed to give people in my care the guidance, correction, protection, or good example they reasonably needed?
  • Have my demands at work, school, or home unnecessarily interfered with prayer, Mass, or family responsibilities?

The responsibilities of your life

  • Have I neglected the responsibilities of the life God has given me while wishing only for a different life?
  • Have I asked God to guide my life's calling, or made choices mainly for praise, out of fear, for comfort, or to please others?
  • Have I ignored the help God gives me to change: prayer, confession, good advice, sacrifice, and attention to situations that lead me to sin?

In the confessional

How to make your confession

Local custom can vary. Begin simply, accuse yourself honestly, and follow the priest's direction.

  1. Approach the confessional with recollectedness and reverence, remembering that the priest hears you in the person of Christ.

  2. Begin simply: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been...” Then tell how long it has been since your last good confession.

  3. Confess your sins with a contrite and humble heart. State serious sins in kind and number as honestly as possible.

  4. When you have finished, say plainly that you are sorry for these and all the sins of your past life.

  5. Listen humbly to the counsel of your confessor, accept the penance imposed, and during absolution make an act of sincere contrition.

How to say it plainly

  • Name the sin plainly, without dressing it up or hiding behind vagueness.
  • Say the number as best you can, or at least whether it was frequent, occasional, or once.
  • Mention only the circumstances that change the seriousness of the sin or are needed for the priest to understand it.
  • Do not retell the whole story unless it truly helps the confession be honest and complete.

After absolution

  • Do not torment yourself by returning again and again to the same confession once it has been honestly made.
  • If a sin was forgotten after a serious examination, trust that it was included under God’s mercy and mention it next time simply and without distress.
  • Do your penance promptly and faithfully, or tell your confessor at once if you foresee a real obstacle to completing it.
  • Leave the confessional resolved to amend your life rather than merely relieved that the moment is over.

Act of Contrition for Confession

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

Give thanks

Do not leave mercy behind in the confessional

Older manuals give real space to thanksgiving after confession. They assume that pardon should be answered with gratitude, vigilance, and fresh dependence on grace.

Thanksgiving After Confession

Eternal Father! I thank Thee, I bless Thee, for Thy goodness and mercy. Thou hast had compassion on me, although in my folly I had wandered far away from Thee and offended Thee most grievously.

With fatherly love Thou hast received me anew after so many relapses into sin and forgiven me my offenses through the holy sacrament of penance. Blessed forever, O my God, be Thy loving kindness, Thy infinite mercy! Never again will I grieve Thee by ingratitude, by disobedience to Thy holy will; henceforth my watchword shall be: “Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam!” “All for the greater glory of God!”

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.

Jesus, my God, I love Thee above all things.

O divine Spirit! penetrate my soul with true horror and loathing of sin. Grant that I may be more exact in the fulfilment of all my duties, and strengthen me by Thy grace, that I may not again yield to temptation.

Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation.

Mary, our hope, have pity on us!

If you forgot a sin

If you examined yourself with reasonable care and forgot a mortal sin, trust that it was forgiven with the rest. Do not run back into needless distress.

Tell it simply at your next confession before your usual confession begins: that you forgot it last time. Only a sin concealed on purpose wounds the confession itself.

Do your penance well

Listen carefully for the penance given, and if no time is named, do it as soon as you reasonably can. Promptness helps keep the soul grateful and obedient.

The small penance given may not equal the whole debt of sin, but by accepting it humbly you show your willingness to make satisfaction and begin again seriously.

Guard against the same fall today

The older manuals insist that a firm purpose of amendment includes avoiding the occasion of sin. Do not walk back toward the very danger you just renounced.

If you know the company, place, hour, device, habit, or conversation that usually drags you down, step away from it today while the grace of confession is still warm upon the soul.

Psalm verses after confession

Lasance closes the section by sending the penitent into the Psalms. These verses are good to pray slowly after confession, on the way home, or later that same day when the soul wants to keep company with mercy.

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (Psalm 31:1)
I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord: I will seek Thy justifications. (Psalm 118:145)
I will praise Thee, because Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. (Psalm 117:21)
O praise the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endureth forever. (Psalm 117:1)
I have acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity I have not concealed. (Psalm 31:5)
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done for thee. (Psalm 102:2)
Who forgiveth all thy iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases. (Psalm 102:3)
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our iniquities from us. (Psalm 102:12)

A same-day resolution prayer

This short Lasance prayer works well the same day after confession, especially when you want to keep one resolution plain and close at hand.

O my God, I beseech Thee most earnestly to bless me, that I may serve Thee faithfully this day by a perfect devotedness to all my duties and a steadfast adherence to all my promises and good resolutions.

Amend your life

Carry one concrete amendment out with you

A purpose of amendment should be simple enough to remember and concrete enough to obey. Take one resolve with you instead of vague good intentions.

Repair

If your sin harmed another person, a promise, a reputation, or something that was owed, resolve to make that right as soon as you can.

Avoid

Name the near occasion that usually leads you back into the same fall, and decide how you will step away from it this week.

Begin

Choose one contrary good: a prayer, an act of honesty, a work of mercy, or a concrete act of obedience that turns your heart back toward God.

Avoid the near occasion

A firm purpose of amendment does not mean only, “I hope I do better.” It means stepping away from what usually leads you back into the same sin.

Name the danger plainly: a place, device, hour, companionship, habit, or conversation. Remove it, limit it, or refuse it while the grace of confession is still fresh.

Know the fault beneath the fall

Older catechisms tell you to notice not only the sin you hate most, but the one you commit most often. That repeated fault usually points toward the ruling passion underneath it.

Ask whether pride, anger, impurity, vanity, sloth, greed, or self-will keeps furnishing the same occasions. Fight the root, not only the branch.

Tonight after confession

Before sleep, make one short return to the grace you received. This is not a second confession. It is a quiet way of guarding the mercy of the day.

  • Did I keep away from the near occasion I meant to avoid today?
  • When the first temptation came, did I pray and use God’s help, or did I drift toward the old habit again?
  • What one mercy from today should I thank God for before sleep, and what one resolution must I carry into tomorrow?

Modern-day applications

Life today

The same commandments, applied to our phones, relationships, work, and daily choices. These are new examples, not quotations from the older books.

Prayer, time, and what I follow

  • Have I let scrolling, gaming, streaming, or constant news take the place of prayer, Mass, or responsibilities I needed to meet?
  • Have I followed online spiritual practices that ask me to trust fortune-telling, magic, or occult powers instead of God?
  • Have I kept returning to accounts or content that I know draw me away from faith or lead me to sin?

Chastity and faithfulness

  • Have I deliberately sought, kept, created, or shared pornography?
  • Have I used messages, images, video calls, or dating apps for sexual behavior contrary to chastity?
  • Have I cultivated a secret romantic or sexual relationship that betrays my marriage vows?
  • Have I knowingly returned to apps, accounts, or conversations that repeatedly lead me into sexual sin?

Truth and how I treat people online

  • Have I posted or forwarded false claims, or repeated damaging accusations without making a reasonable effort to check them?
  • Have I used comments, private chats, or anonymous accounts to bully, humiliate, threaten, or stir up hatred toward someone?
  • Have I exposed private messages, images, or personal information without a just reason?
  • Have I used a fake identity, edited media, or AI-generated content to deceive people or damage someone’s reputation?

Honesty with work, money, and digital property

  • Have I taken or shared paid digital material, used someone’s account, or accessed private information knowing I had no right to do so?
  • Have I falsified work hours, expenses, applications, schoolwork, online listings, reviews, or refund claims?
  • Have I repeatedly used paid work time for personal browsing or entertainment instead of doing the work I agreed to do?
  • Have I used someone’s money, identity, accounts, or personal data to gain an unfair advantage?

Family and people in my care

  • Have I ignored my spouse, children, parents, or someone who depended on me because I would not put my phone or entertainment aside?
  • Have I neglected reasonable, age-appropriate care for the online safety of children entrusted to me?
  • Have I used messages, tracking, or access to someone’s accounts to control, harass, or intimidate them?

Self-control and responsibility

  • Have I gambled, made in-app purchases, or spent recklessly with money needed for my responsibilities or my family’s needs?
  • Have I put lives at risk by driving while impaired, texting, or using my phone irresponsibly?
  • Have I fed envy or vanity by constantly comparing myself with other people online or pretending to have a life I do not have?
  • Have I lied to hide harmful habits or refused reasonable help when those habits were harming others?
Optional adult examination of serious matters

These are Novena Regina editorial applications for adults. They are not quotations from the historical sources and are not a separate Church-approved examination. This guide does not determine guilt. Mortal sin requires grave matter, sufficient knowledge, and deliberate consent. Bring uncertainty to your confessor.

The sacraments and reverence

  • Have I knowingly received Holy Communion while conscious of unconfessed mortal sin?
  • Have I treated the Eucharist, confession, or another sacrament with deliberate contempt or sacrilege?

Human life and grave cooperation

  • Have I procured, encouraged, paid for, or deliberately cooperated in an abortion or euthanasia?
  • Have I deliberately endangered a life through violence, reckless behavior, intoxication, or serious neglect?

Marriage and chastity

  • Have I deliberately used contraception, encouraged its use, or rejected the duties of marital chastity?
  • Have I committed adultery or another grave sexual sin, or deliberately placed myself in a near occasion of it?

Sobriety, safety, and care of others

  • Have I become intoxicated or misused drugs in a way that seriously impaired reason, harmed another person, or neglected a grave duty?
  • Have I abused, coerced, exploited, threatened, or seriously neglected a child, spouse, dependent person, employee, or anyone vulnerable?

Justice and restitution

  • Have I committed serious fraud, theft, deception, or corruption?
  • Have I withheld just wages, refused a serious debt, or failed to make restitution when I was able to do so?
How to use these questions

Temptation and unwanted thoughts are not the same as choosing to sin. Mortal sin requires grave matter, sufficient knowledge, and deliberate consent. This guide does not decide your guilt or replace your confessor.

These present-day examples apply the same commandments to modern life. They are editorial aids from Novena Regina, not quotations from older prayer books or a separately Church-approved examination. Apply only what fits your choices and circumstances, and ask your confessor when unsure.

For further reading, see the FSSP confession guide (French) and the examination published by Sensus Traditionis. These links do not imply their authors reviewed or endorsed our adaptations.

Related confession guides

Choose the next step

Keep the preparation concrete: examine, pray, then make one real amendment.

Start here

Examination of Conscience

A shorter commandment-by-commandment starting point for confession preparation.

Open the examination

Full guide

Full traditional examination

More detailed prompts by commandments, capital sins, duties of state, and accessory to sin.

Open the full examination

Prayer

Act of Contrition

Move from examination into sorrow, amendment, and trust in grace.

Pray the act

Amendment

Ruling passion guide

A steadier look at the root fault behind repeated falls.

Open the guide

Read and pray

Continue your preparation

These reading links are our suggestions, separate from the historical prayers and examination above.

Baltimore Catechism No. 3

Sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment

Question 744 explains sincere sorrow and a firm resolve to avoid sin as the most important part of preparation.

Read the Catechism answer

Sacred Scripture

The return of the prodigal son

Read Luke 15:18-20, where a son returns and his father receives him with mercy.

Read the Gospel passage

Personal devotion

Prayers before and after Communion

Find prayers for preparation and thanksgiving. Follow your priest’s guidance about receiving Holy Communion.

Open the Communion prayers

Older counsel

Counsel from older masters

These short counsels do not replace the examination. They help steady the spirit in which confession is made: honest, humble, concrete, and confident in God’s mercy.

Paraphrase

St. Francis de Sales: Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 19

Do not let the soul remain long in sin when so sure a remedy has been given. Go humbly and devoutly, and make use of confession not only for pardon, but for light, strength, and amendment.

Paraphrase

St. Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises, First Week, General Examination and First Exercise

Ask for light before you begin, look at your actual sins concretely, and seek a real sorrow that prepares the soul to receive grace more fruitfully. End by asking for one grace you need now.

Paraphrase

Baltimore Catechism No. 2: Lessons 18 and 19

Prepare by examining your conscience, asking for sorrow, resolving to avoid sin, confessing honestly, and accepting the penance given. Trust the sacrament rather than endlessly reopening an honest confession.

About this confession guide

This guide draws from older Catholic prayer books and confession manuals. It helps you prepare for sacramental confession, but it does not replace the sacrament, your confessor, or pastoral judgment in the confessional.

Who is this guide for?

Anyone preparing for sacramental confession, whether they need a full path through examination and amendment or a quick start.

What should I do if I feel anxious before confession?

The page starts with a short grounding step and allows you to choose a prayer and an examination path that matches your present state.

What comes after this guide?

The next step is usually contrition, confession, thanksgiving, and then a concrete amendment to carry into daily life.

Source note

This page draws chiefly from Francis Xavier Lasance, With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflections (1911), especially the confession pages 383 through 397, with supplementary state-of-life material from older catechetical manuals and a brief counsel layer from older Catholic spiritual writers.

The headings and transitions are added to make the older material easier to read on a phone. The prayers retain their traditional wording. Examination questions have a plain-English option with the existing wording preserved; present-day applications are labeled separately and have not received separate ecclesiastical approval. The practical order reflects common custom and should always yield to the priest's direction.

Back to top

A book for your prayer corner

The prayers remain free online. A book purchase is always optional.

Get the print guide

A traditional confession preparation guide — examination, prayers, and amendment — formatted to print and keep.

See how your information is handled in the Privacy Policy.

Novena Regina

PrepareforConfession

A traditional Catholic confession aid drawn from older prayer books and confession manuals.

A quiet guide for recollection, examination of conscience, a plain confession, thanksgiving, and one real amendment of life.

Contents

What Is Included

  1. Before You Begin
  2. Prayer Before Confession
  3. A Simpler Examination
  4. State of Life
  5. How to Make Your Confession
  6. Traditional Prayers
  7. After Confession
  8. Source Note
  9. Useful Pages

Preparation

Before You Begin

Begin by asking for light, sincerity, and a quiet willingness to be shown the truth. This guide is meant to help you gather your heart, examine your conscience honestly, and go to confession with humility and trust. It does not replace the sacrament, your confessor, or pastoral judgment in the confessional.

If you have only a minute or two, pray first, recall the worst sin and the one most often repeated, and stir up sorrow before God. If you have a few minutes more, use the preliminary questions and the simpler examination, then review how to begin and confess plainly without wandering.

If you have more time, move through the whole guide in order without hurry. Stay longer wherever the conscience is truly accused, end with the Act of Contrition, and return afterward for thanksgiving and one real amendment of life.

Prayer before confession

Prayer Before Confession

Prayer Before Confession

O Jesus, my Saviour, my good Shepherd, I have strayed far from the path that Thou hast marked out for me; I did not follow in Thy footsteps; I wandered into forbidden places.

Repentant and sorrowful, I beg to be admitted again into the fold of Thy faithful followers. I want to confess my sins with the same sincerity as I should wish to do at the moment of my death.

My Jesus, I look to Thee with confidence for the grace to examine my conscience well. O Holy Spirit, come in Thy mercy; enlighten my mind and strengthen my will that I may know my sins, humbly confess them, and sincerely amend my life.

Mary, my Mother, immaculate spouse of the Holy Ghost, refuge of sinners, assist me by thy intercession. Holy angels and saints of God, pray for me. Amen.

Examination

A Simpler Examination

Do not try to answer everything at once. Ask first where you have resisted grace most plainly, whom you have harmed most really, and which sins have returned most often.

Begin where the older manuals begin: with faith, prayer, reverence, and the right use of the Lord’s Day. Have you neglected prayer, doubted willingly, or grown careless toward God? Have you spoken irreverently of God, sacred things, priests, or religion? Have you missed Mass or treated Sundays and holy days carelessly?

Now turn your conscience toward how you have treated others. This is not only about great harms. Have you carried resentment, harsh speech, or a refusal to forgive? Have you wounded another in peace, reputation, truth, or gratitude? Have you failed in obedience or reverence where it was truly owed?

Then ask how you have stood in purity, truth, and justice. Have you consented to impurity in thought, speech, company, entertainment, or deed? Have you lied, judged rashly, exposed another’s faults, or darkened a reputation? Have you been dishonest in money, work, property, wages, or restitution?

Finally, look beneath the isolated falls. Where were you weakest in habit? Was pride, anger, sloth, vanity, greed, envy, or self-will feeding the same sins again? Did you return willingly to the near occasion that usually leads you back down? Did you help along another’s sin by counsel, consent, silence, excuse, or bad example?

Before you finish, stir up contrition. Ask not only what you did, but how you have offended God Who has been patient, gracious, and merciful to you. Let the conscience accuse you simply, and stay a little longer wherever it truly pierces.

  • Have I prayed and kept God before me, or have I lived as if He were far away?
  • Have I spoken irreverently of God, holy things, priests, or religion?
  • Have I missed Mass, neglected holy days, or treated Sunday carelessly?
  • Have I carried resentment, refused forgiveness, or wounded another by harsh speech?
  • Have I sinned against purity in thought, word, company, entertainment, or deed?
  • Have I lied, judged rashly, exposed another fault, or damaged a reputation?
  • Have I been dishonest in money, work, property, wages, or restitution?
  • Have I returned willingly to the near occasion that usually leads me into sin?
  • What one sin do I commit most often, and what root fault seems to feed it?
  • Have I stirred up true sorrow because I have offended God?

Particular duties

State of Life

You are judged not only by private faults, but also by the duties attached to the life God has actually given you. Read this part simply and apply only what is really yours.

Parents and guardians should ask whether they cared for those under them not only in body but in soul. Have you corrected with charity, given good example, and helped rather than hindered prayer, Mass, and obedience to God?

Those whose daily life is work, wages, service, or promises owed should ask whether they worked honestly, kept their word, and dealt fairly. If others depend on you, ask whether you have been just in burdens, pay, expectations, and the use of another’s need.

Those who have authority over others should ask whether they used it as a stewardship from God or as a license for pride, hardness, neglect, or selfish control. Have you guided, protected, and corrected as duty required?

Parents, guardians, and those with souls in their care

  • Have you cared for those under your charge not only in body but also in soul, prayer, discipline, and example?
  • Have you neglected correction when duty required it, or corrected in anger, harshness, or favoritism?
  • Have you made it harder for children, servants, or those under your care to hear Mass, keep holy days, or live faithfully as Catholics?

Husbands and wives

  • Have you guarded the sanctity of marriage with fidelity, honesty, patience, and reverence?
  • Have you failed to bear with one another’s weaknesses in charity, or allowed bitterness, contempt, or coldness to harden the home?
  • Have you neglected to help one another toward God, or failed in the duty of bringing up children in the fear and love of God?

Work, wages, and daily labor

  • Have you worked honestly, kept your word, and given a fair day’s labor instead of idleness, waste, or deceit?
  • Have you obeyed lawful directions in your work, or been false, careless, or slothful in what was entrusted to you?
  • If you employ others, have you dealt justly about wages, debts, burdens, and promises?

Teachers, masters, employers, and superiors

  • Have you used authority as a stewardship from God rather than as a license for pride, hardness, or neglect?
  • Have you failed to give those under you the guidance, correction, protection, or example they reasonably needed?
  • Have you made work, school, or household demands in a way that needlessly harmed prayer, Mass, or family duty?

Your actual vocation and state of life

  • Have you neglected the duties proper to the state of life God has presently given you while dreaming only of another life?
  • Have you asked God for light about your vocation, or have you chosen chiefly by vanity, fear, comfort, or human respect?
  • Have you ignored the means God gives for amendment in your state of life: prayer, confession, counsel, sacrifice, and watchfulness?

Traditional formula

How to Make Your Confession

When you enter, kneel with recollection and begin in the older plain way: "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been..." Then accuse yourself simply, naming the sins that weigh upon the conscience most truly, and state anything serious in kind and number as honestly as you can.

Do not tell a long story if a plain accusation will do. Speak honestly, briefly, and with sorrow. If shame rises, let it help your humility rather than drive you into confusion. Better a poor confession made sincerely than a polished one made without contrition.

Listen carefully to the counsel and penance given. When told to make your act of contrition, do so with attention. Receive absolution gratefully, then withdraw without hurry and begin your thanksgiving while the grace is still fresh upon the soul.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been...

Confession prayer

Act of Contrition for Confession

Act of Contrition for Confession

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

Thanksgiving and amendment

After Confession

Thanksgiving After Confession

Eternal Father! I thank Thee, I bless Thee, for Thy goodness and mercy. Thou hast had compassion on me, although in my folly I had wandered far away from Thee and offended Thee most grievously.

With fatherly love Thou hast received me anew after so many relapses into sin and forgiven me my offenses through the holy sacrament of penance. Blessed forever, O my God, be Thy loving kindness, Thy infinite mercy! Never again will I grieve Thee by ingratitude, by disobedience to Thy holy will; henceforth my watchword shall be: “Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam!” “All for the greater glory of God!”

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.

Jesus, my God, I love Thee above all things.

O divine Spirit! penetrate my soul with true horror and loathing of sin. Grant that I may be more exact in the fulfilment of all my duties, and strengthen me by Thy grace, that I may not again yield to temptation.

Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation.

Mary, our hope, have pity on us!

Listen carefully for the penance that was given, and if no time is named, do it as soon as you reasonably can. Promptness helps keep the soul grateful and obedient, and keeps pardon from becoming a merely passing relief.

Should a forgotten sin return to mind after a reasonable examination, trust that it was included under God’s mercy and mention it simply next time. Only a sin concealed on purpose wounds the confession itself; a forgotten sin need not send you into needless distress.

Then guard against the same fall by naming the danger plainly. The older manuals insist that a firm purpose of amendment includes avoiding the occasion of sin. If a place, device, companionship, hour, or habit usually drags you down, step away from it while the grace of confession is still warm upon the soul.

Do not fight only the outward act. Ask what fault keeps feeding it underneath. Pride, anger, sloth, vanity, greed, envy, impurity, or self-will often keep furnishing the same falls. Fight the root, not only the branch.

Act of Supplication

O my God, I beseech Thee most earnestly to bless me, that I may serve Thee faithfully this day by a perfect devotedness to all my duties and a steadfast adherence to all my promises and good resolutions.

Useful pages

Near Occasions and Root Faults

Near Occasions to Avoid

  • A device, app, or website that weakens purity, prayer, honesty, or peace.
  • A conversation or companionship that usually leads toward sin.
  • An hour of the day when tiredness, idleness, or secrecy becomes dangerous.
  • A place where I repeatedly abandon the resolution made in confession.
  • A habit of delay that keeps me from prayer, Mass, duty, or restitution.
  • A resentment I keep revisiting until charity grows cold.

Root Faults to Watch

  • Pride: refusing correction, needing to win, or hiding fault.
  • Anger: rehearsing injuries, speaking sharply, or refusing peace.
  • Sloth: delaying prayer, duty, penance, or the hard good God asks.
  • Impurity: consenting inwardly, seeking occasions, or neglecting custody of the senses.
  • Greed: grasping at money, comfort, praise, or advantage unjustly.
  • Envy: grieving over another good or being pleased by another fall.
  • Self-will: choosing my preference over duty, charity, or obedience.

Prayers

Prayers to the Holy Ghost and Our Lady

Prayer to the Holy Ghost

Come, O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created. R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God, Who hast taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that by the gift of the same Spirit we may be always truly wise, and ever rejoice in His consolations, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary! that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, and sought thy intercession, was left unaided.

Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother! To thee I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate! despise not my petitions, but, in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

Traditional sources

Source Note

This confession aid draws chiefly from Francis Xavier Lasance, With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflections (1911), especially the confession pages, together with older catechetical manuals on duties of state and amendment of life.

The headings and transitions are editorial helps for reading and print. The prayers and examination lines follow older traditional material. The practical order reflects common custom and should always yield to the priest's direction.

novenaregina.com/prepare-for-confession