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Examination of Conscience
before the
Sacrament of Confession for Pre-Adolescents and Teenagers
Below is a suggested way of examining your conscience in preparation for a fruitful confession of sin. It is based on the Ten Commandments and gives examples of the kinds of sins that tend to be committed against each of those divine precepts.
I. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have false gods before me.
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Have I put money, popularity, material things or any other good above my relationship with God?
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Have I rejected any of God’s revelation to me of who He is or what He wants me to do?
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Have I tried to turn away from a vocation to which I think God might be calling me?
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Have I despaired of God’s help or provision for me in my times of need?
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Have I presumed that God would forgive me when I decided to do something sinful?
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Have I used things that are superstitious, occult, or related to witchcraft?
II. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
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Have I used the name of the Lord in vain, or in any other way used it improperly?
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Have I made false oaths or failed to keep a promise made in God’s sight?
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Have I disrespected the holiness of God and/or of persons or things that are specially associated with God (like priests, sacred objects, the parish buildings, etc.)?
III. You shall keep holy the Sabbath day.
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Have I failed through my own faults to not worship God on Sundays and Holy Days of
Obligation by attending Mass?
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Have I made an effort to keep Sunday holy by spending time with my family, spending extra time in prayer or in charitable activities, resting from the work of the week?
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Do I make an effort to pray regularly and attentively throughout the week?
IV. You shall honor your father and your mother.
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Have I been respectful of my parents (and step-parents, grandparents or other family members)?
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Have I been respectful of my teachers and others in authority over me?
V. You shall not kill.
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Have I done damage to someone’s reputation or well being in any way?
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Have I done damage to myself through drugs, alcohol or other self-destructive behavior?
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Have I hoped that bad things would happen to someone else?
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Have I been a bad example to anyone else (especially younger siblings) that might have made them fall into sin themselves?
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Have I ever been a part of, in any way, the taking of human life through abortion, euthanasia or other threats to human life?
VI & IX. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not covet your neighbor’s spouse.
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Have I been sexually impure with myself and/or with someone else?
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Have I pursued and sought out lustful thoughts on my own or through reading/watching sexually impure materials in books, on the internet, on TV?
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Am I careful to guard against sexually impure entertainment that I might otherwise have access to in books/magazine, on the internet or on TV?
VII & X. You shall not steal. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
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Have I respected the property of others, both in my family and outside of it?
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Have I been unhappy with the blessing that God has given me and been
jealous of another?
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Have I tried to get the things, clothes, etc. that I see others having/wearing,
just because they have them? Am I sinfully jealous of what others have?
VIII. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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