s or
broken a promise not to take it? Have I knowingly caused others to be
intoxicated? "Sloth." Have I wasted my time willfully and neglected to
do my duty at school or elsewhere? After examining yourself on the
Commandments and capital sins, examine yourself on the duties of your
state of life. If you are at school, how have you studied? You should
study not alone to please your parents or teachers, but for the sake of
learning. If you are at work, have you been faithful to your employer,
and done your work well and honestly?

The above method is generally recommended as the best in the examination
of conscience. But you need not follow these exact questions; you can
ask yourself any questions you please: the above questions are given
only as examples of what you might ask, and to show you how to question
yourself. It is useless to take any list of sins in a prayerbook and
examine yourself by it, confessing the sins just as they are given. If
you do take such a list and find in it some questions or sins that you
do not understand, do not trouble yourself about them. In asking
yourself the questions, if you find you have sinned against a
Commandment, stop and consider how many times. There are few persons who
sin against all the Commandments. Some sin against one and some against
another. Find out the worst sin you have and the one you have most
frequently committed, and be sure of telling it.

(2) "Have sorrow for our sins." After examining your conscience and
finding out the sins you have committed, the next thing is to be sorry
for them. The sorrow is the most essential part in the whole Sacrament
of Penance. In this Sacrament there are, as you know, three parts:
contrition, confession, and satisfaction--and contrition is the most
important part. When, therefore, we are preparing for confession, we
should spend just as much time, and even more, in exciting ourselves to
sorrow for our sins as in the examination of our conscience. Some
persons forget this and spend all their time examining their conscience.
We should pray for sorrow if we think we have none. Remember the act of
contrition made at confession is not the sorrow, but only an outward
sign by which we make known to the priest that we have the sorrow in our
hearts, and therefore we must have the sorrow before making the
confession--or at least, before receiving the absolution. Now what kind
of sorrow must we have? Someone might say, I am not truly sorry bec