THE EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE AND THE RESOLUTION TO AMEND

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
Book 4
The Seventh Chapter

THE EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE AND THE RESOLUTION TO AMEND

THE VOICE OF CHRIST
ABOVE all, God's priest should approach the celebration and reception of thisSacrament with the deepest humility of heart and suppliant reverence, with completefaith and the pious intention of giving honor to God.

Carefully examine your conscience, then. Cleanse and purify it to the best of yourpower by true contrition and humble confession, that you may have no burden, knowof no remorse, and thus be free to come near. Let the memory of all your sins grieveyou, and especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions. Then if time permits,confess to God in the secret depths of your heart all the miseries your passions havecaused.

Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate andunmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so oftenoccupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lieswithin, so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal, socurious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliationand dejection, so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so tenacious inkeeping, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so undisciplined incharacter, so disordered in action, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, soprompt to rest and so slow to labor, so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy inkeeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them, so wandering in your attention, socareless in saying the office, so lukewarm in celebrating, so heartless in receiving, soquickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected, so quickly moved to anger, so apt to takeoffense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so happy in prosperityand so weak in adversity, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action.

When you have confessed and deplored these and other faults with sorrow andgreat displeasure because of your weakness, be firmly determined to amend your lifeday by day and to advance in goodness. Then, with complete resignation and with yourentire will offer yourself upon the altar of your heart as an everlasting sacrifice to thehonor of My name, by entrusting with faith both body and soul to My care, that thusyou may be considered worthy to draw near and offer sacrifice to God and profitablyreceive the Sacrament of My Body. For there is no more worthy offering, no greatersatisfaction for washing away sin than to offer yourself purely and entirely to God withthe offering of the Body of Christ in Mass and Communion.

If a man does what he can and is truly penitent, however often he comes to Mefor grace and pardon, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked,but that the wicked turn from his way and live";50 I will no longer remember his sins,but all will be forgiven him.