An Examination of Conscience

Don't forget that there are confessions at church this afternoon!  What an amazing gift of grace and love we have in this Sacrament....  let's avail ourselves of it.... often!

Before we go to confession, we prayerfully make an examination of conscience.  Why do we do this, and why is it called examination of conscience?  With our consciences at the helm of individual morality, we have to give a deep, raw, and honest look at our consciences and the kind of behaviors we have justified to ourselves as being OK.  We, as logical humans, have a weakness to negotiate, justify, accept, and defend behaviors which we know are wrong, but we would like to believe are right.  It is so much easier to say "it's OK" than to face the reality that our actions may be sinful.  When we faithfully examine our consciences, we can recognize deceitful reasoning, insincere, or even harmful actions, repent of them, and ask the Lord to forgive us -- setting us right again.

Here is a sad and disturbing article, which demonstrates the degree to which our culture has silently accepted behavior that should be outrightly rejected.  We need to "examine the conscience" of the society we are a part of.  When we are unable to speak the truth of rights and wrongs, sinful behavior has the power to harm our culture and society as a whole.  We need to call a spade, a spade.

Let's stop the devil in His tracks - let's not make excuses.  Go to confession today!