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Course 3 · Lesson 5.1

Examination of conscience: methods old and new

9 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 3 outline

Module 1: The Idea of a Rule

  1. What a rule of life is, and what it is for
  2. Pachomius and the first written rule
  3. Basil of Caesarea and his Rules
  4. Benedict: the Rule as a school of the Lord’s service
  5. Adapting a monastic rule for ordinary life

Module 2: The Hours and the Psalms

  1. Origins of fixed-hour prayer in Jewish and early Christian practice
  2. The Divine Office in the West and the hours in the East
  3. How to pray the Psalms: lament, praise, trust, wisdom and imprecation
  4. Building a simple office for one person

Module 3: Scripture and the Prayer of the Heart

  1. Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation
  2. Meditative reading compared with study and with Ignatian imaginative prayer
  3. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its history and its Eastern setting
  4. Practicing the prayer of the heart, with its cautions

Module 4: Fasting, Giving, Rest and the Year

  1. Fasting in Scripture and tradition, and its safe limits
  2. Almsgiving and care for the poor
  3. Sabbath rest and the Lord’s Day: how traditions differ
  4. The church year: Advent to Pentecost and the ordinary weeks

Module 5: Conscience, Confession and Worship Alone

  1. Examination of conscience: methods old and new
  2. Confession in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions
  3. Repentance, confession to God and to a trusted person when no minister is available
  4. What worship alone can include: prayer, Scripture, song, the hours
  5. What the traditions say requires a church or ordained minister

Module 6: Seasons and Ordinary Duties

  1. Silence as a discipline and its dangers
  2. Planning a day, a weekend and a longer retreat
  3. Work as part of the rule: ora et labora
  4. Hospitality, family and neighbor

Module 7: Dryness, Perseverance and Review

  1. Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches
  2. Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon
  3. Doubt and perseverance
  4. Accountability for a rule of life
  5. Reviewing and revising a rule at thirty days, ninety days and one year

All courses

Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 5.1

What you will learn

  • Define examination of conscience and give its biblical basis.
  • Describe at least four methods: the Ten Commandments, the vices, the Beatitudes and the Ignatian Examen.
  • Explain the danger of scrupulosity and how the traditions guard against it.
  • Carry out a short, honest examination at the end of a day.

The big idea

Examination of conscience is the practice of looking honestly at one’s thoughts, words and actions in the presence of God. It is old: the psalmist asks God to search him, and Paul tells believers to examine themselves. Christians have used several patterns, including the Ten Commandments, the list of vices, the Beatitudes and the Ignatian Examen, which begins with gratitude. A good examination is specific, brief and hopeful. It must be guarded against scrupulosity, an anxious and endless self-accusation.

Key terms

Conscience
The inner capacity to judge whether an action is right or wrong. Traditions differ on how far it is reliable and how it should be formed.
Examination of conscience
A deliberate review of one’s life, usually daily or before confession, to see where one has fallen short.
Examen
The Ignatian form of daily review, which begins with thanks and looks for God’s presence in the day.
Scrupulosity
A pattern of anxious, excessive guilt over small or imagined faults, which can harm prayer and health.
Vice
A habit of wrongdoing, as opposed to a single act. The traditional lists include pride, anger and greed.
Contrition
Sorrow for sin joined with the intention to amend.

Background

Scripture often asks for self-examination. The psalmist prays, Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts (Psalm 139:23-24). Lamentations calls the people to search and try their ways (Lamentations 3:40). Paul writes that a man must examine himself before eating the bread and drinking the cup (1 Corinthians 11:28), and tells the Corinthians to examine whether they are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Self-examination is not limited to Christians. The Roman philosopher Seneca describes a nightly review of his day, asking what faults he had cured and what he had resisted (On Anger, Book 3). Christian writers took up the habit and gave it a different center: not self-improvement alone, but life before God, whose mercy is greater than the faults found. The desert fathers practiced watchfulness over thoughts, and Cassian describes the practice of revealing thoughts to an elder.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes

A common method is to take each of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and ask how it applies. The first commandments concern love of God: do I put anything before him, do I use his name carelessly, do I keep time for worship and rest? The later ones concern neighbors: honor to parents, respect for life, faithfulness, honesty, contentment. Christ’s teaching deepens the commandments (Matthew 5:21-48), so that anger and lust are included.

Another method uses the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), asking where one is poor in spirit, merciful or pure in heart. This approach is positive. It looks at the kind of person one is becoming and not only at failures.

Step 2: The vices and virtues

The desert tradition named eight harmful thoughts, which the West later reduced to seven capital sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. A person can examine the day by asking which of these appeared. A parallel method asks about the virtues: faith, hope and love, and prudence, justice, courage and temperance.

These lists are tools. They help to name patterns so that general guilt becomes specific. A person who says he is a bad person learns little. A person who says he lost his temper twice and envied a colleague has something to bring to God and to change.

Step 3: The Ignatian Examen

Ignatius of Loyola proposed a short daily prayer of review. The common pattern has five steps. First, give thanks for the gifts of the day. Second, ask for light to see the day truly. Third, review the day from morning to night, noticing moments of love and moments of failure. Fourth, express sorrow where needed and ask forgiveness. Fifth, look ahead to tomorrow with a resolve.

The Examen begins with gratitude, not guilt, which sets the whole review in a context of grace. It takes about ten minutes and fits well at the end of the day. Protestants have also adopted it, and its structure resembles older evening prayers.

Step 4: Guarding against scrupulosity

Examination can go wrong. Some people become scrupulous: they see sin everywhere, doubt that they have repented and repeat confessions. The Catholic tradition has long recognized this and advises such persons to obey a confessor and not to examine too closely. Protestant pastors similarly counsel those who torment themselves to rest in Christ’s promises, such as 1 John 1:9.

Practical safeguards include keeping the examination brief, beginning and ending with thanks, setting a time limit, focusing on patterns rather than every thought and talking to a trusted person. If anxiety about guilt is constant or severe, it may be a matter for a counselor or physician as well as a pastor. Self-examination should lead to freedom, not to bondage.

  1. What gift of this day am I most grateful for?
  2. Where did I act against love today, in word, deed or silence?
  3. Which pattern of fault appears most often, and what lies under it?
  4. Is my examination specific or vague?
  5. Do I tend to excuse myself, accuse myself too harshly, or both?
  6. Whom could I tell if my guilt feels endless?

Examples

A brief Examen

A man sits for ten minutes before bed. He thanks God for a conversation with his daughter. He asks for light. He recalls a sharp reply to a coworker and a moment of patience in traffic. He asks forgiveness for the first and resolves to apologize in the morning. (A constructed example.)

A scrupulous pattern

A woman repeats the same confession of a trivial fault every week and worries that she has left something out. Her priest tells her to stop going over the past and trust God’s mercy. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

The Catholic view

Catholic practice includes a daily examination and a more thorough one before confession, often using the Commandments. The Catechism teaches that conscience must be formed and that it can err. The tradition has well-developed counsel for scrupulosity.

The Orthodox view

Orthodox Christians examine themselves in evening prayers and before confession and communion, using prayer books that contain lists of sins. Their teaching on watchfulness (nepsis) adds attention to thoughts throughout the day.

The Protestant view

Protestants practice self-examination as a spur to repentance and assurance. The Heidelberg Catechism begins by asking what one must know to live and die in comfort and answers that it is misery, deliverance and gratitude. Luther warned against an examination that leads to despair, and pointed the troubled to Christ.

The psychological view

Psychologists distinguish healthy guilt, which prompts amends, from harmful shame or obsessive guilt, which can be a symptom of anxiety disorders. They advise those who cannot stop self-accusation to seek professional help.

Why it matters

Without examination, a rule can become comfortable routine. With too much, it can become a source of anxiety. The traditions offer ways to look honestly and mercifully. Practiced daily, a brief examination also prepares for confession and repentance, which are treated in the next lessons.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Self-examination means beating myself up.

Correction: The best traditions begin with gratitude and end with hope. Honesty is not self-hatred.

Misunderstanding: Only Catholics practice examination of conscience.

Correction: Orthodox and Protestant traditions have their own forms. Scripture commands self-examination for all believers.

Misunderstanding: My feelings of guilt are always accurate.

Correction: Conscience can be mistaken, too sensitive or too dull. It needs forming by Scripture, teaching and counsel.

Knowledge check

Name three methods of examining conscience.

Examples: the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the list of vices and virtues, and the Ignatian Examen. Each gives a framework that makes the review specific. Any three are correct. Some traditions also use questions drawn from prayer books or from the Sermon on the Mount.

What are the five steps of the Examen?

Give thanks for the day, ask for light, review the day for moments of love and failure, express sorrow and ask forgiveness, and look ahead to tomorrow with a resolve. It begins with gratitude, which places the review in the setting of grace.

What is scrupulosity, and what guards against it?

Scrupulosity is an anxious, excessive guilt over small or imagined faults. Safeguards include brevity, beginning and ending with thanks, a time limit, focusing on patterns, trust in a confessor or pastor and, if severe, professional help. The aim is freedom and not bondage.

Which Scripture passages support self-examination?

Psalm 139:23-24 asks God to search the heart. Lamentations 3:40 calls to search and try the ways. 1 Corinthians 11:28 tells believers to examine themselves before the supper, and 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells them to test whether they are in the faith.

Think it through

  1. What part of your day is hardest to look at honestly?
  2. How does beginning with gratitude change the review?
  3. How would you tell the difference between conscience and anxiety?

Independent assignment

A week of evening examinations

In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. For seven evenings, spend ten minutes on an examination using the five steps of the Examen. Write three lines each evening: one thanks, one fault and one resolve. At the end of the week, name one pattern you noticed. Stop and seek advice if the practice causes distress. Do not post it.

Further study