Advent Examination of Conscience
One of the special gifts of Fr. Marlin Connole to our parish here at St. Bridget has been his remarkable creativity when it comes to special liturgies; i.e., weddings, funerals, and communal celebrations of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Last night was a wonderful example of the latter. It was a quiet evening, with simple, easy-to-sing music, and as a community we gathered in the semi-darkness to meditate on our lives and together ask for forgiveness. "You hadta be there" to understand the dynamic of the evening...but one very moving piece was the Examination of Conscience, read very simply, without hurry, with short sung responses between the four sections. I have found this reflection piece to be very meaningful personally. I would love to hear any reactions, additions/corrections...
An Advent Examination of Conscience
For failings in our private life:
When we have abused or neglected the gifts of body or spirit God has given us:
When we have overindulged in food, alcohol, drugs, or other cravings
When we have allowed ourselves to become overtired
Whenever we have reached for the wrong things
Whenever we have become too complacent or self-satisfied
For ever being too afraid or lazy to do the right thing,
For any personal decisions, habits, or attitudes that keep us from being the child of God that we are called to be
For failings in our families:
When we have hurt or neglected our families
When we have withheld our love from those closest to us
When we have been too guarded or afraid to reach out
When we have withdrawn into our own pursuits
Whenever we have argued too easily
Whenever we have deliberately hurt
For ever failing to help when needed
For ever failing to say we were sorry
For ever failing to say we were wrong
For ever failing to be a sign of God’s love and grace to those we know we should love the most
For failures in our communities:
When we have hurt or neglected our communities – our friends and neighbors, our Church, our country, our world
When we have held back and let others do it
When we have said we would do our part and let it slide
When we have been a disruptive force because of our own ego
When we could have been a peacemaker but kept quiet
Whenever we have excluded others intentionally
Whenever we have taken more for ourselves when others went lacking
Whenever we have ignored others who were in need
For ever choosing to keep to ourselves and not wanting or trying to be in community with others
For any failing in being a neighbor to others
Finally, for our failures with our God:
When we have failed to put our relationship with God first
For the times when we chose to leave God out of our life
When we have failed to make time for regular private prayer
When we have failed to make time for worship with others
When we have made important choices in our life without listening for God’s voice speaking to us
For ever holding back when our God was calling us to be an instrument of grace
When others have been in need or in doubt and we have been too afraid to share the Good News of God’s presence in our lives
When we have failed to offer back to God gifts we have been given – our time, our talents, our treasures, our service, our lives
For those times when we were in need of grace from God but were too proud or afraid to ask
posted by Deacon Denny @ 2:38 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
I've missed some posts!
I've never been to a group reconcilliation before - I like the idea of using the Examination of Conscience, kind of like the Jesuit one.
The post on Africa was interesting too - I know almost nothing about what it's like there, aside from a little I read in James Martin's My Life With The Saints ... he spent some time there working for the Jesuit Refugee Service.
Good stuff :-)
Hi Crys!
Deacon,
That's a very good examen, and it reminds me that I should probably get to reconciliation before Christmas.
I'm with Crystal, I like the group reconciliation. My parish is fairly close to the Weston School of Theology, and sometimes they bring retired Jesuits in from there to help with the group reconciliations. They are very good.
Crystal --
The group format is one of the possibilities described in the Rite for the sacrament. In the U.S. there are many parishes that have opted to include General Absolution with it as well, it being very hard to arrange enough priests to individually spend time with every person in a large crowd.
Whether there is General Absolution or not, I find that this format allows for the creation of a reflective atmosphere that provides a safe place to experience sorrow, contrition, and the resolve to make changes; and it has brought a lot of people back to a practice of the sacrament.
Africa -- I've been there three times now, and have a lot of friends in Malawi, & some in other places. I'll have more posts about Africa, from time to time. Thanks for the visit.
Hi Jeff -- The Jesuits are great, aren't they? They've been a huge influence for me. Four years at a Jesuit high school, four more at a Jesuit university, then four years in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, though, caught me at a later stage in life, at an important time of change. Don't know if you've vver had exposure to a directed Ignatian retreat -- if not, you might ask around Weston -- somebody's involved with it, I'm sure.
Deacon,
Good advice about an Ignatian retreat. I'd like to go on one that emphasizes the Spiritual Exercises.
If I don't touch base with you before the 25th, have a Blessed Christmas Day.
Jeff --
Thank you.
I'm sure you can find one. Here in Seattle there are several versions available, at different times of the year. There are weekend retreats, and 8-day retreats, & then there's the marathon 30-day retreat. There are also some that use the "Annotation 19" variation...which involves a certain amount of prayer every day and regular meetings with a spiritual director.
Good luck, and I wish you and your family a wonderful, blessed Christmas.
I have to say, one of the things I have always appreciated most about the Christian tradition is the idea of examining our brokenness - not alone, but together as a community, whose love, support, and good works can transform our collective weaknesses into a source of hope, strength, and true beauty.
Wow, that was a doozy of a run-on sentence. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm still reading, and I've launched a blog of my own on here. Check it out!
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As an addendum, let me just say that I am still uncertain and undecided where I stand religious-beliefs-wise. I don't consider myself a Christian. Generally I think language is one of the greatest barriers to understanding spirituality, so I hate to just slap on labels, but the closest one to my own beliefs would probably be "agnostic." But then again, I only barely know what that means.
Regardless of that, the "wounded healer" concept in Christianity continually (and without fail) just blows me away. It's incredible.
Hi John --
Nice to have you visit again. And thanks for the link to your blog...I'll keep an eye on it.
Would love to have a conversation with you about your understanding of the "wounded healer" -- obviously it's something that comes up in my work at the hospital, and other places. I find you have to "be at work on your own stuff" in order to be able to presume working with anyone else on theirs. As an example, if you're acting as a Spiritual Director for someone, or helping them with their prayer life, you should also have someone as your own Spiritual Director and have an active prayer life yourself. It would be interesting to share perspectives with you on what those words might mean in your value system... granting your comment about language being a barrier to understanding spirituality.
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