A partial examination of conscience ... for bloggers ... well, for me.

Take little notice of who is with you or against you... so long as you always try to please God and write what is true. 

Deacon Kandra posted a very good examination of conscience not long ago - check it out here.

The examination of conscience is something I was trained to do, so it is a regular practice for me - it is part of prayer - in fact a little examine and act of contrition is always the first part of prayer throughout the day.

Anyway.  I came across a sort of short-form examine at Shirt of Flame - it hit home:

And I'm ruminating on the year past and the year to come

 

One of the main things I see is that we cannot afford the slightest bit of resentment, bitterness and/or hatred. And I, for one, am utterly powerless to get rid of any of that on my own. No use trying to assert my "willpower," which only wants to win and will convince me that NOT loving the person in question is the goal and some kind of twisted triumph.

 

So I need to be in constant contact with a Power greater than myself. I've gotten in the habit these past few months of a nightly review, i.e. Examination of Conscience: where was I selfish, dishonest, self-seeking, fearful? In this way, my petty jealousies, enmities, resentments, meanness-es, and lies (I like to call these exaggerations for effect but they are lies!) are constantly revealed and then I get to ask to be forgiven and to do better. And I see how very much help I need. How very flawed I am. But also how much I yearn to do better so that, at least, is good and to be grateful for. - Source

 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - Mark 8:36

For "life is so short, the path leading to eternal life so narrow, and I know the just man is scarcely saved, while the things of the world are vain and deceitful, and all comes to an end and fails like falling water. The time is uncertain, the accounting strict, perdition very easy and salvation most difficult... My life has vanished, I know well I must render an account of everything - from the beginning of my life as well as this later part - unto the last penny, when God will search Jerusalem with lighted candles, and it is already late - the day far spent - to remedy so much evil and harm..." - St. John of the Cross