EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE. —
I. NATURE
An ascetical exercise in which a person desirous of spiritual perfection, by reflecting on his own actions, corrects their defects and raises them to greater perfection.Already the ancient philosophers considered it necessary for the improvement of life to spend some time asking themselves an account of their thoughts, words, and actions. Pythagoras prescribed the examination of conscience to his disciples, and Cicero affirmed that every evening he reviewed what he had said, heard, and done during the day. The phrase of Seneca is famous: “And so, as often as I plead my case before myself, I scrutinize the whole day with myself, I review my deeds and words. I hide nothing from myself; I pass over nothing!” (cf. Ep. 83, 2; De ira 3, 36, 1).
The use, however, of the examination of conscience in a strictly ascetical sense spread with the hermit and cenobitic life of the early centuries of the Christian era. The Holy Fathers, in eloquent pages, recall that God searches the reins and the heart (Ps. 7, 10), that even every idle word, according to the saying of Jesus Christ, will be examined on the day of judgment (Mt. 12, 36). And before them St. Paul said that if we judged ourselves, we would avoid divine judgment (1 Cor. 11, 31). Voluntary expiation was greatly recommended as a safeguard against God’s punishment. The Fathers generally recall that humiliation leads to exaltation, repentance to forgiveness, as in the case of the publican in the Gospel parable who, recognizing himself as a sinner, wept with a contrite heart and obtained mercy.
St. Augustine writes: “Before judging others, be a judge of yourself. Return to yourself, turn your attention to your works, discuss, listen to your cause... Have you examined yourself, judged yourself, punished yourself? Behold, you are spared” (PL 38, 110).
The practice of the examination of conscience, from monasticism—both Eastern and Western—passed into medieval spiritual life; it was strongly recommended by St. Bernard (1000–1153) and widely practiced by families of Benedictine, Carthusian, Victorine, and Dominican inspiration. In modern times it became widespread, with methods multiplying. It acquired particular importance in the spirituality inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556); ecclesiastical authority introduced it into seminaries; its use today is universal in colleges, educational institutions, and religious institutes, and is often made at fixed times for a period varying from a quarter of an hour to half an hour. Such universality indicates the esteem in which it is held in the Church for its salutary influence on Christian life.
The benefits of the examination of conscience are especially related to “purity of conscience and the attainment of certain virtues” (G. B. Scaramelli, Direttorio ascetico, I, treatise 3, art. IX). To attain purity of soul it is necessary, besides knowing one’s own failings and the external occasions that lead to them, to conceive true sorrow and the purpose of amendment. Now, knowledge of bad inclinations, failings, and their roots is almost impossible for one who never or scarcely ever reflects on the state of his own soul.
The acquisition of virtues depends essentially on intimate self-reflection about the circumstances in which one lives. Beginning with the virtue of humility—
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base and foundation of all true perfection, defined by St. Bernard as that virtue by which man, through the most truthful knowledge he has of himself, holds himself in low esteem—it arises from frequent examinations of conscience, which show that man without God is nothing, can do nothing, and corrupts and spoils the gifts of the Lord; so that from such knowledge the soul arrives at a feeling of confusion that prevents it from becoming proud, detaching it from blind pride, from the desire to dominate, from thinking itself more than it is.
The practice of the examination of conscience is evidently most useful in disposing one better for sacramental Confession and in drawing greater fruit from the Sacrament, by fostering a more precise accusation of one’s sins and a more actual and intense sorrow and purpose of amendment. When seriously performed every day, it also becomes an excellent preparation for death and for the judgment of God.
Two kinds of examination of conscience are distinguished: the general and the particular.
The first essentially concerns the failings committed in a day (or half-day), beginning from the hour of rising up to the moment of the exercise, going through the various hours and occupations. Various methods are proposed (v. below). Ascetical authors, however, especially insist on formulating acts of contrition during the examination, emphasizing the most perfect motives for detesting the evil committed. Sincere contrition for one’s failings indeed obtains immediately the forgiveness of faults and restores the beauty of the soul, even though the person guilty of mortal sin remains under the grave obligation to confess it in the subsequent sacramental Confession, unless he should otherwise fall back into God’s disfavor through the transgression of a grave obligation imposed by Him. If the sorrow is as it should be, the purpose of avoiding sins in the future will not be lacking. But since the human will is weak and frail, it is recommended to end the examination by resorting to prayer to obtain the divine grace that strengthens II.
The particular examination of conscience is the concentration of attention and effort on a special point. It is an application to moral life of the strategic principle of avoiding the dispersion of forces. It is therefore directed to uprooting one by one the principal defects of the individual, according to the famous phrase of the Imitation of Christ: “If every year we uproot one vice, we shall soon be perfect.” Every person usually has one or more weak points, or predominant passions that are the root of his daily failings. Precisely against these tendencies the particular examination of conscience must be practiced, that is, a special vigilance and more intense and circumstantial resolutions. This is a very reasonable practice, already employed by the wise of antiquity. Plutarch used it to overcome anger and indignation. To facilitate the practice, spiritual masters advise beginning with the defects easiest to overcome, then proceeding to the more difficult; first targeting those that are external, which offend others, then those that are purely internal. As regards the purpose of amendment, the principal element of the particular examination, one must strive to make it truly serious and energetic, for vague wishes or half-measures are not sufficient to achieve the goal.
On the particular examination of conscience:
J. Deharbe, *Examen ed usum Cleri in gratiam praecipue sacerdotum sacra exercitia obeuntium*, Rett. 1906; P. Fontana, *Novena in triduo d'examen particulare*, Bruxelles 1912; L. Sempe, *Ascèse et mystique. L'examen particulare, principe, méthode, origine*, Tolosa 1923; A. J. Willwerding, *Examinations of conscience for boys and girls*, St. Louis 1927; C. Imba, *A Particular Examen. A constructive method*, 1917; P. Gocke, *Der asztische Wert des Particularexamens*, Glossar 1938; O. Marchetti, *E. di c. per il clero durante i santi esercizi*, Roma 1934; id., *E. di c. per i giovani*, 1919; id., *E. di c. per gli adulti*, 1914; W. Sierp, *Nüher, mein Gott, zur Hilfe! Handbüchlein für die tägliche Geissenerforschung*, Warndorf in W. 1940.
II. Precept and Method
Especially after the exhortations to the spiritual life by Pius X (*Haerent animo*: cf. *Acta Pii X*, 4 [1908], pp. 237-64) and by Pius XI (*Ad catholici Sacerdoti*, 20 Dec. 1935, in *AAS*, 28 [1936], pp. 5-53), the particular examination of conscience has become one of the most important practices of religious life. The Code of Canon Law indirectly commands it for all clerics: «Curent locorum Ordinarii ut clerici omnes... quotidie... conscientiam suam discutiunt» (can. 125).The legislator leaves the method of the particular examination entirely free.
The general examination of conscience according to the method of St Ignatius contains five points: thanksgiving to God, the petition for grace, a careful inquiry into our conduct from the first awakening to the present moment, the petition for forgiveness, and the resolution (Modus facienda examen generale et coniuncte quinquae puncta). The method of the particular examination is more complex. It begins with the first dictation in the morning (preventive examination) and is completed in two moments, before lunch and after dinner. It also requires the written annotation of faults (a kind of balance-sheet of losses and gains) so as to be able to compare one day with another, one week with another. This complex system rendered the particular examination according to St Ignatius less acceptable to several masters of the spiritual life, among whom were St Francis de Sales (*Lettere alla suora di Sostifour*, in *Oeuvres de st François de Sales*, XII, Annecy 1902, p. 167 ff.) and St Alphonsus (*La vera sposa*, ed. Roma 1935, cap. 24).
The Ignatian methods for both the general and the particular examination reflect the spirit of St Ignatius, a methodical spirit, hostile to abstraction, which represents the spiritual life as a struggle and a conquest. It does not propose to renounce sin in general, but this particular sin; nor to be perfect in general, but to acquire this or that virtue. It starts from the principle that a man must do everything as if everything depended on himself.
Alongside the Ignatian methods there are other methods, and among these the so-called Sulpician methods are of particular importance, whose fundamental ideas come from Cardinal de Bérulle, from De Condren, and from Ollier. Since the central idea of the Sulpician method is union and adherence to the Incarnate Word, in order to offer to God the acts of religion that are due to Him and to reproduce in the soul the virtues of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the five acts of the general examination of St Ignatius are added adoration and placing oneself in the presence of Jesus as model and judge; moreover, the examination will not have as its direct object the removal of a determined defect or the acquisition of a determined virtue, but rather the abuse of the dispositions to virtue that Jesus Christ has given us, rejecting His inspirations and impeding His inspirations and motions (cf. M. Ollier, *Lettres*, ed. E. Levesque, I, Paris 1933, pp. 31-17). The Church, in recommending the particular examination of conscience, as has been said, to the whole clergy, has not intended to impose a determined method, but leaves to each one the widest freedom of spirit.