A fuller traditional examination

Examination of Conscience

Use this fuller traditional Catholic examination to move through the commandments, capital sins, duties of state, and the ways a person can become accessory to sin.

This is not meant to turn confession into a nervous inventory. Take only what really belongs to your life, accuse yourself simply, and then return to the sacrament with humility and trust.

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

About the full examination

What is included in this full examination page?

It covers the commandments, the Church precepts, capital sins, duties of state, and accessory-to-sin prompts.

Should I accuse only sins that truly belong to my life?

Yes. Take only what is truly yours so the examination stays honest and useful.

When should I stop and move on to confession?

Stop when your conscience is clear enough, make confession, and then return to the sacrament with amendment in mind.

Begin with the commandments Return to the confession guide Questions about life today

How to move through it

Begin with a brief prayer for light. Then take the commandment, duty, or root fault that most likely needs attention.

If one part pierces the conscience, stay there. If it does not really belong to your life, pass over it without strain. The point is honest accusation, not a longer scroll.

A steadier order

Begin with these preliminary questions so you can remember where your last confession and last resolutions truly stand.
Then choose one path at a time: the commandments, the Church's precepts, repeated root faults, or the duties of your state of life.
When the conscience is clear enough, stop there. Stir up contrition and go back to the simpler confession guide so you can accuse yourself plainly.

Begin with these questions

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?

By the commandments

Take the law of God slowly

Older manuals begin here because the commandments steady the conscience. Move through them one by one, and ask not only what you did outwardly, but how the habit took hold inwardly.

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.

Duties and helping others to sin

Ask where carelessness became cooperation

After the commandments, many consciences need to pause over two quieter areas: practical neglect of the Church's small but binding duties, and the ways another person's sin was helped forward.

Precepts of the Church

These are few in number, but they often uncover practical negligence that the soul has started to excuse.

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.

Helping another person to sin

Ask not only what you did yourself, but whether you helped another's sin forward, excused it, concealed it, or stayed silent when duty required resistance.

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?

Traditional moral categories

Grave injustices and the works of mercy

Apply these questions 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?

The Seven Capital Sins

Look beneath the repeated fall

These root faults matter because they keep furnishing the same sins. Use them when the conscience knows the pattern, but has not yet named the fault beneath it.

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 life

Examine the life God actually gave you

You are judged not only by private faults, but also by the duties attached to your home, work, authority, dependence, and present vocation. Apply only what truly belongs to you.

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?

When the conscience is clear, stop simply

When the conscience is clear enough, do not keep rummaging. Stir up sorrow before God, accuse yourself simply, and return to the main confession guide so you can prepare for the sacrament without wandering.

Then carry only three things

Name the sins that truly weigh on the conscience, together with number and grave circumstance as honestly as you can.
Ask for real sorrow, because contrition matters more than a longer list.
Choose one concrete amendment to carry into the same day.

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.

Return to confession guide Read the ruling passion guide