A good Confession begins with a good examination. Four classical methods — general (Ten Commandments), particular (one fault at a time), by-virtue (where am I growing?), and by-vice (where am I stuck?) — each have their season. This session links the pre-Confession examination to the daily Examen (course B5).

The examination of conscience is the disciplined act of looking honestly at your interior life under the light of God's truth. It is not introspection (which is self-focused) and it is not morbidity (which is despair-focused). It is illumination: you ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He sees, and you cooperate with what He shows.

The Catholic tradition offers four classical methods. The general examination walks the Ten Commandments or the seven capital vices and asks where you have failed against each. It is the standard preparation for a routine Confession. The particular examination (Ignatius's particular examen) focuses on one specific fault for an extended period — your predominant fault — and tracks progress against it. The by-virtue examination asks which virtues you are growing in and which you are neglecting. The by-vice examination, often paired with spiritual direction, names the disordered pattern that is producing the surface sins.

Which method should you use? If you go to Confession routinely (weekly or every two weeks) the particular method is best — you are tracking one thing carefully, not re-listing the same inventory each time. For a quarterly or seasonal Confession the general method is appropriate. For a retreat or major life-juncture, the by-vice method with a director is invaluable.

The examination for Confession is closely related to but distinct from the daily Examen (course B5). The Examen asks "How was God with me today?"; the Confession examination asks "Where did I refuse Him?" Both are needed. The daily Examen surfaces the raw material; the Confession examination sorts it into what needs to be confessed.

The examination of conscience is the disciplined act of looking honestly at your interior life under the light of God's truth. It is not introspection — which is self-focused and tends to spiral — and it is not morbidity, which sits in shame without moving. It is illumination: you ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He sees, and you cooperate with what He shows. The illumined eye is honest but not anxious, clear but not cold.

The Catholic tradition offers four classical methods, and a well-formed Catholic should know all four and use them in turn.

The general examination walks the Ten Commandments or the seven capital vices and asks where you have failed against each. Most printed examen pamphlets follow this method, and it is the standard preparation for a routine Confession. Its strength is comprehensiveness; its weakness is that it can become rote, the same list every time, surfacing nothing new.

The particular examination (Ignatius's particular examen) focuses on one specific fault for an extended period — what the tradition calls your predominant fault. You name the fault, you track it through the day, you note the occasions that triggered it, and over weeks and months you watch it yield. Ignatius gave it a triple structure: morning resolution against the fault, midday count of how many times you fell, evening count again with renewed resolution. This is the method most spiritual directors will start you on once you are past beginner.

The by-virtue examination asks not "where did I sin?" but "where did I grow, and where did I stall?" It is positive in framing — which is dangerous if it lets you off the hook of real sin, but bracing if you have been stuck in a guilt-spiral and need to see God working in you. Francis de Sales and Thérèse of Lisieux both favoured this register.

The by-vice examination is best done with a director and looks not at the surface sins but at the disordered root beneath them. Why do I keep losing my temper at home? Is it sloth (I have not built the structures that would have prevented the situation)? Pride (my dignity was injured)? Avarice (I felt my time being stolen)? The same surface act can come from different roots; the by-vice examination digs until it finds which one.

Two further points. First: the examination is not Confession. It prepares for Confession but does not replace it. If you examine and find nothing, that is itself a finding — examine harder, or ask a director why your eye is dull. Second: keep the examination short. Twenty minutes is generally too long and tends toward scrupulosity (see A6.04). Five to ten focused minutes will surface what the Spirit wants surfaced; longer usually surfaces what your imagination invents.

The daily Examen taught in B5 is the engine that feeds the Confession examination. If you are doing the Examen each evening you will arrive at the confessional with a clear, current sense of what needs to be said. If you are not, you will arrive empty and have to manufacture a list, which is rarely the list God wanted.