There are lots of good pages on the internet about making an examination of conscience. I thought it would be good to list them as I find them and share them with you. There are many different ways to examine one’s conscience - for me, different ones work for different times. Many of them are based on the Ten Commandments. Sometimes that seems too much like getting into the checklist syndrome . . . and yet at other times.. its just what I need to get my thoughts clicking . . . so

This site has some good explanations of the different types of Examination of Conscience. New Advent Catholic Enclyopedia

Here is a site for those who are not sure what sin is. Some days.. this definitely applies to me - I am easily confused. Lumen 2000

Here are some good sites on Examination of Conscience  based on the Ten Commandments.

For Adults

Very Rev James Alberione, S.S.P, S.T.D.

St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church

Father Pat

Father John Hardin, S.J.

Father Robert Altier, (pdf)

Catholic Information Network

Catholic Pages

Pax Christi USA

For Children

Catholic Parents 1

Catholic Parents 2 (elemenatary School)

I just found a beautiful confession story. I don’t know if it is true or not, but I think it is. One thing it does for me is make me have an even greater appreciation and love for the sacrament of confession. It also puts the “dread, fear, and anxiety” we sometimes have about confession in a very manageable place.

The story takes place in 1944 - I hope you will take the time to read it. It’s very good.

I think the secret to getting more out of the sacrament of confession… is taking the time to ask yourself important questions. Every conversion point begins with a question.

• Is this all there is?
• Should I be doing something different with my life?
• Am I being as good a Christian as I can be?
• How can I be better?

I like asking myself questions like these. Don’t usually come up with good answers … but its a sort of bold way to wake me up and get me into a deeper level of living a spiritual life.

I always remember one conversion point I had long before I entered the monastery… long, long before… must of been right after after Noah landed the ark on dry land - anyway I took a walk in the woods during a retreat. I was supposed to be examining my life to see what I was about…. I started to panic because for the life of me I could not come up with a good answer and I was supposed to say something during the group session…and I was just totally blank. I walked.. I sat down for two seconds on a log here and there ..but couldn’t sit still and jumped up and started walking again. Walking, walking, walking…. and not lazy walking either .. this was serious.. thinking walking.. only there wasn’t any thinking coming forth. Finally - it hit me. What my life was about at that time.

It was called “running away.” I was running away from everything. At that time I was into drugs and all sorts of things…running away things that kept me from looking too much within.

The answer was like the bright sun breaking through the clouds.

Somehow - being able to put a “label” on where one is at in life… .is so transforming. It’s like, yes. now I can deal with this. … and I can look at my life with better understanding. I can deal with it… once I just figure it out!

I didn’t quit drugs actually for another year or so… but that moment has always stayed in my life as a very transforming moment.

I think if I could encourage anyone to do anything.. I would say… ask yourself questions. Maybe not every day - but often. The same questions or new ones… the answers will always be different.. but the experience of looking at your life for answers - opening yourself to God for HIS answers…. is totally, totally life changing.

What is God saying to me today? What does God want for me? Do I believe God loves me? If not, why not. If yes, how much do I believe and accept his love in my life? How much do I really trust God?

No one needs to know the answers but you… but you will be empowered… always.. when you ask yourself questions and take time to let them germinate and grow and grow in your thinking.. one day the answers will finally come.

Confession Makes a Comeback

Churches are encouraging sinners to repent by modernizing an ancient rite. Alexandra Alter reports.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
September 21, 2007; Page W1

Sin never goes out of style, but confession is undergoing a revival.

This February at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI instructed priests to make confession a top priority. U.S. bishops have begun promoting it in diocesan newspapers, mass mailings and even billboard ads. And in a dramatic turnaround, some Protestant churches are following suit. This summer, the second-largest North American branch of the Lutheran Church passed a resolution supporting the rite, which it had all but ignored for more than 100 years.

Confession Makes a Comeback

This is really a great article! In the Wall Street Journal no less.. Who woulda thought?

Alexandra actually called me on the phone in getting this story. …. which was really neat.. I didn’t make it into print… but hey…. I was at least in on the working of it. I was like feeling.. “oh so important!”

I hope it does great things.. and like she says in the article.. which is really worth reading …. it does indeed seem to be making a comeback.

I think it is really neat that the Protestant churches are taking a serious look at it. Maybe we’ll start seeing we are not so far from each other as we thought!

Do you ever feel that you are just not doing enough? That only if you tried a little harder, worked a little more, gave a little more - that things would work out better?

Do you ever have this uneasy, unsettled, back of the mind feeling that God is not quite pleased with you? And maybe He would be … if only you just did a little bit more, loved a little bit better, sacrificed more often? For heaven’s sake if you would just pray more things would not be in this mess?

Know what? I think that is heading into sin territory. Really. I think we need to lighten up with ourselves, with God, with life and most especially with one another.

Most people I know are far too hard on themselves. They can be the most loving, giving persons on the planet and still walk around with a “I’m just not quite good enough” complex. I think (advice I’m probably not doing myself.. but bear with me). That if we looked at ourselves with a bit more sense of awe - a sense of wonder…

“Isn’t it amazing that I am as good as I am?” After all, I didn’t have to smile at you, or make you some toast, or hold your place in line. I didn’t have to open the door for you, or take the call from your mother with a smile in my voice, or take out the dog at 5:00 in the morning when I would rather stay in bed. I mean, by jove, I’m not so bad.

And then . . .

“Isn’t it amazing that my neighbor is as giving as he or she is?” Why look at all the things they are doing for their kids, their family, their co-workers. Why even the way they drive is considerate of my presence on the road. (Okay, there are always a few sort of below the considerate, nice drivers benchmark folks) but do I stop to concentrate on the many who are nice drivers?)

It occurred to me at Mass this morning. Of all places. Imagine God speaking to me like that in such a place? That I was looking about me at the different sisters in the pew and noticing all the WRONG things. The veil out of place, the extra shuffling in their pew, the lost place. . . and when my thoughts started to wander again - you might wonder if I had any moments of holy reflection at all. Anyway… then I started to notice how my thoughts would be on all the things - I should of done yesterday, have to do today…. and whew….what a mess.

It just seems that I constantly put myself in the mode of “NOT ENOUGH.”

• I’m not doing enough. Check
• My neighbor is not doing enough. Check
• God is not doing enough. Check.

Oooops? Now I’m trying to run not only my show, my neighbors show.. .but God’s show.

Hmmmm. Maybe. I just need to say.

It’s Enough!

I just downloaded a plugin that will give a link to a Scripture site for every scripture reference I use. So here is my test! 2 Cor 6:16

It Works! It Works! It Works! How super cool. Now every time I use a scripture quote you can click on the scripture reference and go to a Scripture site and read the scripture. It just doesn’t get any cooler than this.

Once there you can also choose which Bible version you want. Totally awesome. I am impressed. I am also very glad I decided to go with Wordpress - it is just so over the top!

Oh, before I get carried away - I better share the link to this plug-in for you.    The Holy Scripturizer

I am exploring different ideas to make this site the most practical and usable for you. An idea I came up with last night was to start a short daily examen message - a sort of kick-start bit to help you to look at your day in a God centered way. What went right.. what didn’t… where was God in your day sort of thing.

It might go something like this:

Spiritual Quote: You are good and forgiving full of love to all who call to you. Lk 5:11

Place Yourself in the Presence of God: Be still and know that I am God.

Imagine that no matter how sinful and awful you may feel or think you are…. God looks upon you as his most special and loved child. Can you imagine a mother with a child who has special needs - perhaps is blind or deaf or lame or slow….. can you imagine loving a child like that? If that is difficult for you - can you imagine a child that just got into a mud puddle and is totally dripping mud? Can you still love a child like that? If you can love a small child who is not at his total best….. than know that that is only a tiny glimpse of the love God has for you - no matter what you have done. God never, ever stops loving you!

Put yourself in front of this loving God - just sit - wait and see what happens.

Thank God for the Gifts of this Day: [Name five thankful gifts] From the moment the stupid alarm clock went off to this moment.. look for the glimpses and touches of God. In the beginning you may not see or remember God’s presence in many ways but as you struggle with this concept - pretty soon a flood of thankful memories will surge into your spirit like the tide coming in on a beautiful sandy beach.

• the alarm clock.. … I can hear it! Thank you God for the gift of hearing
• my warm bathrobe…. Thank you God that I have nice clothes to keep me warm
• my shower…. thank you God for the gift of warm, splashing running water available with just a twist of the knob.
• talking with a friend… how wonderful to have someone to share with.
• A spiritual thought or insight that came to you during the day -transforming how you think about yourself or someone else - or helping you to deal with a difficult situation.

Spiritual Tune Up Time [what could I have done better?]

Every day has its moments in which we didn’t say, do or act in the best way. Take a few moments and think about three situations in which you could have responded better.

1. responded grumpily to a simple request to take the dog out
2. thought angry thoughts about someone and frowned at them
3. procrastinated in doing the dishes or writing a note or ?

Ask for God’s Forgiveness -

Ask for the grace to respond better tomorrow.

Pray the Our Father

The above thoughts were adapted from St. Ignatius - Daily Examen

I am only just a beginner in seeing and understanding this beautiful way of prayer. I hope in the days ahead to explore it with you in greater depth, perhaps with some interviews with those who have practiced it for longer periods of time than I have!

In my next article I will share with you some of the great links about the Daily Examen. It’s been around for a long, long time - at least five hundred years!

The first four entries were all done on Typepad… I was trying out there free trial… but I’ve decided to move to Wordpress. This is my first entry - (I copied and pasted the previous ones.)

 I hope you will bear with me for about a week or so as I learn some of the ins and outs of this new platform. Not really talk about confession… though I am sure there are a few moments of frustration and confusion where we could build up some matter for it!

 This is actually my second blog - my other one is called JoyNotes. Which is a blog form of my daily (Monday through Friday) ezine by the same name. In JoyNotes I have a small group of Catholic writers who share (from their own blogs) thoughts, meditations and inspirations from their walk in life.  Sr. Janet Fearns FSDM works at Vatican Radio in Rome, Danielle Bean is a mother of eight and a freelance journalist for the National Catholic Register and other Catholic periodicals, Fr. Rory Pitstick is a parish priest and Scripture scholar here in our Spokane, Washington, (USA) diocese. Oh and Msgr Rosage has a daily selection from his book, “Follow Me” and my sister (related as in same mom and dad and collection of brothers and sisters) is a dietician and she offers a “Tasty Tuesday” bit on nutrition and eating tips. Plus, lots of links to other inspirational sites.. not all Catholic but mostly.

Very amazing thing happened over the weekend. The latest thing I have been reading is called, “Clear Blogging” by Bob Walsh. It is very good.. and he has a blog site “naturally” that is also very good. I just checked that out.  Clear Blogging

Anyway in Chapter six he had a few pages about an interview with a Sister Julie and her role in the blogosphere. Was very interesting so naturally I had to go take a peek. Guess what? I was already there!

That day she had just posted my video on Confession with Oprah! Whoa? What is neat about this is that I had only discovered Sister Julie that day and the video I had done back in December of 2006! So it had been around awhile. But God put the two things together …. maybe just to make an impression on me. A sort of “See I am with you always” sort of thing. Or to better paraphrase that, “Even before you were blogging I knew you.”

I am still in process in getting this blog site - the way I want it…. so stay tuned for changes. Of course no one is reading this right now.. .but you know…. just in case someone does sometime…

I’ve had a blog on Google for about a year.. but now I have taken the leap to Typepad. So…. it has taken me about three days to get it mapped to my own domain name. It was a convuluted mess…. the name I wanted to use… confession101.com was parked with my other site… http://confessions101.com and figuring out how to unpark.. redirect…. and well… with my limited understanding of all this - it took some time.  Not to mention loss of my cool, calm, everything will work out composure.

I didn’t swear exactly…so we are safe on that account. A bit testy…. uh yeah, we will admit to that one.

This morning we had confession…. I have to say it went quite well. It kind of helps publishing a book on the subject, reading books on the subject, thinking day and night how to make it a bit more bearable. I mean - when I think of confession - the old way.. it was more like putting myself in the stocks and beating myself up with an ugly stick. (Ugly stick was an expression my brother Roy used to describe my brother Ellery after a night on the town that didn’t go so well). Anyway to me it was one of those…. “You gotta do it…. you’ll feel better….. but I hate it anyway… sort of experiences.

Now I think confession is much more about improving myself both spiritually and in every other way. Perhaps I could say - looking within - so that I become more totally ME. A concentration on how to move into more JOY… happier relationships…and LOVE that is without strings or expectations.

I’ve been so anxious to get this blog up and running  because I am just brimming over with ideas that I want to share and I hope others will share with as well. Confession is not the hottest topic on the web … but it could be.. if we really knew how it could take us into a whole new level of growth and life.

To me it is a Sacrament that is just starting to unfold.