Examination of conscience according to the seven deadly sins
I. Pride
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)
“The beginning of pride is to turn away from the Lord; the proud person turns their heart from their Maker.” (Sirach 10:12)
“The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, and they will be humbled” (Isaiah 2:12)
“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” (Luke 1:51-52)
“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)
“What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)
“God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble” (James 4:6)
1. Recognition of God as the source of all good
1. Do I recognise that all the good things I have – of nature and of grace – come from God, and not from myself?
2. Do I attribute to God all the good that I do?
3. Am I not perhaps proud, so full of myself, that I do not let even a drop of grace enter me?
2. Submission to God’s will and to superiors
1. Do I refuse to submit to God’s will?
2. Am I not perhaps disobedient or reluctant to accept the decisions of those who have legitimate authority over me?
3. Do I have an excessive attachment to my own will and my own opinions? Am I stubborn? Can I give up my whims for a greater good?
3. Spiritual life
1. Do I not trust myself too much, to the point of exposing myself to the danger of sin?
2. Do I not perhaps consider myself to be without need of spiritual guidance?
3. Do I not boast when God gives me spiritual consolations? Or do I not complain to Him because He does not give them to me?
4. Do I not despise the small things – virtues, habits of piety – aspiring only to the great ones?
5. Do I distinguish between what is doctrine of faith and what is simply my personal opinion?
6. Do I reject humiliations, or do I instead know how to take advantage of them as an opportunity to grow in humility?
4. Self-awareness and acceptance of one’s own limits
1. Do I sincerely acknowledge my mistakes and ask for forgiveness?
2. Have I not perhaps covered up or justified my mistakes instead of correcting them?
3. Do I not pretend to know or have what I do not have, to appear greater in the eyes of others?
4. Am I not perhaps a hypocrite? Do I not pretend to be what I am not?
5. Do I not consider myself indispensable, as if nothing can be done without me?
5. Relationship with criticism and the opinions of others
1. Do I accept the advice of others, or do I scoff at it even when I see it is good?
2. Do I not get offended or angry when others criticise me?
3. Do I not persist in my opinions even when I realise, they are wrong or not as good as those of others?
4. Do I not have a superior and arrogant tone when I correct someone? Do I allow the person who made a mistake to leave the correction with dignity, or do I make them feel humiliated?
5. Do I have the patience to listen to the person I am talking to? Or do I talk over them?
6. Do I not judge and criticise everyone with ease – even my superiors – because I consider them inferior to me?
6. Comparison with others and ambition
1. Am I not perhaps ambitious? Do I not aspire to honours or higher positions to show off more in front of others?
2. Do I know that comparing myself with others is pointless, because I will always find someone who surpasses me and someone I surpass? Have I made this rule my own: “not the best of all at any cost, but better than yesterday at any sacrifice”?
3. Have the successes I have achieved not led me to pride or contempt for others?
4. Do I not despise others in my heart?
7. Seeking praise, honours and approval
1. Do I not desire to be praised? Am I not perhaps sad when I do not receive praise or recognition?
2. Do I not perhaps, in conversations, try to bring the subject around to myself in order to be praised?
3. Do I not try to attract attention with my intelligence, my physical appearance or other qualities?
4. Am I able to be indifferent to praise and honours?
5. Do I not do things just to make a good impression?
6. Are my good works done with a right intention, or are they mixed with pride, vanity, selfishness, presumption or arrogance?
8. Relationship with others in daily life
1. Do I not consider myself the centre of the universe? Do I not centre everything on myself?
2. Do I not show myself to be excessively concerned with what others think of me?
3. Do I not perhaps consider myself the only perfect model, the only competent authority, the one that everyone must follow?
4. Do I not perhaps value my actions so much that I desire everyone to be concerned with me, to pity me in my misfortunes and to compliment me on everything I do?
5. Am I able to do good for my neighbour without despising or humiliating them? Am I able to help with humility, without showing superiority?
6. Do I not perhaps use unworthy means – flattery, pretence, showing off merits I do not have – to obtain a position or an office?
7. Have I not perhaps resented the way I have been treated?
8. Do I temper my critical spirit? Do I express my criticisms constructively, as a suggestion of a better possibility?
II. Avarice
“Whoever loves money never has enough money; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10)
“He who loves gold will not be free from guilt; he who pursues money will be led astray by it.” (Sirach 31:5)
“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left” (Isaiah 5:8)
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24)
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)
“You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13)
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (1 Timothy 6:9)
“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a person is an idolater- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5)
1. Trust in God and detachment from material goods
1. Would I be ready to deprive myself of everything in order not to lose God’s grace?
2. Do I not perhaps have little trust in God’s Providence and an excessive worry about the future?
3. Have I not perhaps made an idol of money, seeking in it security, pleasure or social prestige?
4. Do I not perhaps have a disordered sense of possession over things and people?
2. Relationship with money and material goods
1. Has not the accumulation of wealth perhaps become an overwhelming concern for me? Has money become an end in itself?
2. Do I not perhaps have a greed for money or the desire to possess more and more?
3. Do I not perhaps feel an excessive attachment to goods or money?
4. Do I not perhaps call “saving” what I know full well to be avarice?
5. Do I not perhaps confuse unreasonable accumulation with the legitimate desire to secure my future and that of my family?
6. Do I have an ambition for fame or power?
3. Honesty and integrity in business
1. Do I make use of deceit, cheating or shady deals just to earn more?
2. Have I not gambled with money?
3. Do I guard against incurring unnecessary debts? If I am forced to do so, do I pay them punctually and scrupulously?
4. Responsible use of money
1. Do I use material goods according to just and moderate needs? To what extent does my love for luxury go?
2. Do I not spend money on useless or superfluous things? If I have little, do I use it for the most necessary things or do I waste it on things I could do without?
3. How do I use the money I earn? Have I used money as a responsible steward of the goods that God has entrusted to me?
5. Generosity towards one’s neighbour
1. Am I generous or selfish with what I have?
2. Am I not perhaps stingy with my family?
3. Have I not perhaps harmed my family or other people because of my greed or ambition?
4. Have I helped those in need – the poor, missions, churches, colleagues in difficulty, works of charity?
5. Do I sacrifice my time to help others?
6. Do I have a particular care and compassion for the poor, or do I despise them and more willingly seek the company of the rich?
7. Do I not perhaps complain about my material poverty, thus showing a heart that desires riches?
III. Lust
“Two kinds of people multiply sins, and a third brings wrath: a passion as hot as a burning fire will not be quenched until it is consumed; a man who is unchaste in his body will not desist until the fire devours him; to the unchaste man all bread is sweet, he will not grow weary until he dies. The man who is unfaithful to his own bed says to himself, ‘Who sees me? Darkness is all around me and the walls hide me; no one sees me, why should I be afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins’” (Sirach 23:16-18)
“Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies!” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5)
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)
1. Grave acts (sins in deed)
1. Have I not had sexual relations outside of marriage – fornication or adultery?
2. Have I not committed impure acts alone or with others?
3. Have I not deliberately put myself in situations where I knew I would fall into sin, then deluding myself that I would repent without actually changing anything?
2. Consequences for the person
1. Has my disordered sexual life not clouded my ability to reason and to distinguish good from evil?
2. Has it not weakened my will, making me incapable of making firm decisions and keeping them?
3. Has it not diminished my sense of values, leading me to make foolish or irresponsible choices?
4. Has it not made me more selfish, less able to truly think of others?
3. Confusion between lust and love
1. Do I not confuse lust with love, as if they were the same thing?
2. Do I know, deep down, that lust is not love – and that true love is not reduced to sex?
3. Do I recognise that sexuality is one of the ways in which love is expressed, but that it finds its full, moral place only in marriage?
4. Thoughts, words and gaze
1. Do I not let myself be carried away by impure thoughts without doing anything to banish them?
2. Do I not stop to stare at people or images that arouse bad thoughts in me, instead of immediately looking away?
3. When I notice that my imagination is heading towards dangerous things, do I stop it immediately or do I let it go?
4. Do I use vulgar words, double entendres or sexual jokes that disturb or scandalise others?
5. Am I not myself the cause of many of my temptations, by the way I behave, the way I look, the way I speak?
5. Occasions of sin and environment
1. Do I avoid readings, films, programmes, sites or content of an erotic or pornographic nature?
2. Do I avoid situations of prolonged solitude with people who could become an occasion of sin?
3. Do I avoid environments or company where people speak in a vulgar way or foster a sensual mentality?
4. Do I keep my use of alcohol, laziness and excesses in entertainment under control, knowing that they weaken my abilities?
5. Do I immediately banish involuntary temptations, resorting to prayer, instead of dwelling on them?
6. Justifications and self-deception
1. Do I not try to justify my sexual excesses by saying they are “necessary for health” or an “expression of my personality”?
2. Do I not delude myself that I am repentant after every fall, without actually changing anything in my lifestyle?
3. Do I realise that praying and asking God for graces, while continuing to live in a sexually disordered way, is a contradiction?
7. Spiritual life and remedies
1. Am I convinced that purity is a precious and necessary virtue – not an unattainable ideal?
2. Do I sincerely think that God would approve of my sexual habits, as they are?
3. Do I resort to the Sacraments – particularly Confession and Communion – as a concrete help to live in purity?
4. Do I recognise in holy Communion the most powerful medicine against impurity, and do I receive it with this intention?
IV. Wrath
“A quick-tempered person does foolish things.” (Proverbs 14:17)
“Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32)
“An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.” (Proverbs 29:22)
“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.” (Ecclesiastes 7:9)
“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil” (Psalm 37:8)
“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:22)
“Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27)
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” (Ephesians 4:31)
“But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (Colossians 3:8)
“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:19-20)
1. Grave acts (violence and revenge)
1. Have I not committed acts of physical or verbal violence, driven by anger?
2. Have I not offended or harmed someone in a moment of anger?
3. Have I not committed injustices towards others precisely because I was beside myself with rage?
4. Have I not concretely sought to take revenge on someone who has harmed me?
5. Do I not harbour desires for revenge – have I not thought or said “they will pay for this”?
2. Resentment and forgiveness
1. Do I not hold a grudge against someone, avoiding speaking to them or socialising with them?
2. When someone hurts me, am I able to truly forgive them or do I pretend to forgive and keep score?
3. When someone asks for forgiveness, am I ready to give it from the heart?
3. Outbursts of anger and loss of control
1. Do I not have sudden outbursts of anger, with furious words or gestures?
2. Do I not get annoyed and lose my temper over minimal things, over trifles?
3. Do I not use blasphemies, curses, swear words or vulgar expressions when I am angry?
4. Do I not let myself be infected by the anger of those around me, even when I could remain calm?
5. Do I realise that when I am in the grip of anger I cannot reason clearly and I misjudge situations?
4. Touchiness and bad mood
1. Am I not excessively touchy – do I not see offences where there is only a joke or an unintentional mistake?
2. Am I not intolerant and uncompromising? Do I not get easily irritated with those who do not think like me?
3. Do I not get into a bad mood when things do not go my way?
4. Do I not show my bad mood in a way that weighs on those around me?
5. Do I know how to face difficulties – illnesses, work problems, conflicts in relationships – without losing my inner peace?
5. Personal responsibility and growth
1. Do I not blame others or circumstances when I lose control – “they made me lose my head”, “it’s their fault I got angry” – instead of taking my own responsibility?
2. Do I realise that anger is an obstacle to my personal and spiritual growth, and that it prevents me from doing God’s will?
3. Do I make a concrete effort to control my emotions or do I let myself go, thinking I can do nothing about it?
4. Have I done anything practical to work on my irascibility: prayer, reflection, asking for help?
6. Way of speaking and relationships with others
1. When I reply to someone who is angry, do I do it calmly and gently or do I respond with the same anger?
2. When I express a criticism or defend my point of view, do I do it in a calm tone or do I have a desire to prevail or to hurt?
3. Do I avoid provoking others with jokes, pranks or behaviour that I know annoys them?
4. Do I speak in a way that seeks truth and justice, or do I speak to be right and to make the other person pay?
V. Gluttony
“Put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.” (Prv 23:2)
“Do not be among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.” (Prv 23:20-21)
“Do not be greedy for any delicacy, and do not be unrestrained in your eating; for overeating brings sickness, and gluttony brings on colic. Many have died of gluttony, but he who is careful to avoid it prolongs his life.” (Sir 37:29-31)
“Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you.” (Lk 12:19)
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly.” (Lk 21:34)
“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” (Phil 3:18-19)
1. Addictions and serious harm to the person
1. Do I not have an addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or other compulsive behaviours related to pleasure?
2. Have I drunk or eaten so excessively as to lose control of myself?
3. Has the abuse of food or alcohol not deteriorated my mind, my memory, or my capacity for judgement?
4. Has it not made me lose my dignity or sense of responsibility towards others?
5. Has it not significantly weakened my will, making me a slave to my habits?
6. Has it not brought into my life an increasingly materialistic view, in which the body and its pleasures matter more than anything else?
2. Habitual excesses in eating and drinking
1. Do I not habitually eat more than necessary, beyond what my health requires?
2. Do I not drink alcohol in excess – to what extent is it part of my daily life?
3. Have I not scandalised someone with my behaviour at the table or with my drinking?
4. Do I truly believe that eating or drinking too much has negative consequences for my moral and spiritual life?
3. The five ways of sinning at the table
1. Do I not eat outside of mealtimes, before my body truly needs it, just because I feel like it?
2. Do I not let myself be overcome by greed – do I not eat voraciously, gluttonously, without restraint?
3. Do I not eat in excessive quantities, beyond reasonable need?
4. Do I not seek out overly expensive and refined foods, caring more about pleasure than necessity?
5. Do I not dedicate a disproportionate amount of care to choosing and preparing what I eat, turning the meal into an obsession?
4. Inner attitude towards food
1. Do I not seek pleasure for its own sake in food and drink, as if it were an end and not a means?
2. Do I not often and willingly talk about food, recipes, restaurants, as if it were one of the most important topics in my life?
3. Do I realise that God has given us the pleasure of food to sustain us, not to make me dependent on it?
5. Moderation, mortification, and spiritual life
1. Am I moderate in food and drink, or do I let myself go without setting limits?
2. Do I eat and drink calmly, even when I am hungry or thirsty, or do I pounce on food without control?
3. Do I practise some form of voluntary mortification at the table: not always choosing what I prefer, observing the prescribed fasts, accepting some small deprivation with serenity?
4. Do I respect the fasts and abstinences set by the Church?
5. Can I suffer hunger or thirst without complaining when circumstances require it?
VI. Envy
“A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” (Pr 14:30)
“Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” (Pr 27:4)
“Jealousy and anger shorten life, and anxiety brings on old age too soon.” (Sir 30:24)
“For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.” (Mt 27:18)
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant,” (1 Cor 13:4)
“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.” (Jas 3:14)
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” (1 Pt 2:1)
1. Concrete actions against one’s neighbour
1. Have I not spoken ill of someone out of envy, trying to diminish their reputation in the eyes of others?
2. Have I not spread gossip or insinuations about someone?
3. Have I not schemed against someone, trying to sabotage their success or their image?
4. Have I not belittled or criticised well-educated or learned people, labelling them as “pretentious”, because deep down I envied them?
5. Have I not labelled as “hypocrites” those who try to live their faith well, in order to justify my own inconsistency to myself?
2. Envy of others’ possessions and successes
1. Do I not become sad when another is praised or recognised, as if their success were my defeat?
2. Does it bother me that others are happy or successful, as if that good fortune had been stolen from me?
3. Do I not envy the natural talents of others: intelligence, beauty, health, abilities?
4. Do I not envy the social position, career, reputation, or professional successes of others?
5. Do I not envy the moral and spiritual qualities of others: goodness, generosity, faith, holiness?
3. Jealousy and rejoicing in others’ misfortune
1. Am I not envious of family, friends, colleagues, or peers for what they have or for how they are regarded?
2. Have I not rejoiced, even just inwardly, at someone’s misfortunes, failures, or humiliations?
3. Do I not censure or criticise what others do because, deep down, I wanted to do it myself to receive the honour or recognition?
4. Inner attitude and comparisons
1. Do I not get lost in constant comparisons between myself and others, which end up fuelling envy and discontent?
2. Do I not complain to God in my heart because He has given others qualities, talents, or situations that He has not given me?
3. Do I not grieve at the good of others as if it were a harm to me, instead of rejoicing sincerely?
5. Sincerity towards others and towards God
1. Am I able to see the gifts of others as something beautiful for everyone, and not as a threat to my own importance?
2. Is the appreciation I show towards others sincere, or does it actually hide a comparison that eats away at me inside?
3. Do I sincerely rejoice when someone close to me grows, improves, or achieves something wonderful?
4. Do I recognise that every gift comes from God and that the good of others takes nothing away from my own good?
VII. Sloth
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” (Pr 6:6)
“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.” (Prv 10:26)
“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” (Prv 13:4)
“Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.” (Pr 19:15)
“The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labour.” (Pr 21:25)
“Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.” (Eccl 10:18)
“‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.’” (Mt 25:26-27)
“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” (Rom 12:11)
“For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thess 3:10-12)
“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hb 6:11-12)
“Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hb 12:12-13)
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.’” (Rev 3:15-16)
1. Abandonment and lukewarmness in the spiritual life
1. Have I not distanced myself from the Christian life because I found it too arid, difficult, or demanding?
2. Have I not sought God negligently: in prayer, in the sacraments, in good works?
3. Do I not have a laziness or disinterest in the things of God, as if they do not really concern me?
4. Am I not lukewarm in my prayers: do I not shorten them, skip them, recite them distractedly without getting involved?
5. Do I not get easily distracted by worldly things when it comes to dedicating time to God?
6. Am I not fainthearted in the face of what is spiritually difficult: do I not stop at the first obstacle without even trying?
2. Negligence in duties and towards others
1. Do I not work superficially and negligently, doing things by halves or carelessly?
2. Do I not willingly leave the most difficult tasks to others, reserving the more comfortable ones for myself?
3. Do I not avoid, even with pretexts, everything that requires a little extra effort?
4. Do I finish what I start, or do I leave things half-done and move on to something else?
5. Am I not indifferent to the difficulties of others, because helping them would require a sacrifice?
6. Do I always wait to “feel like it” to serve and help, instead of doing so even when I don’t want to?
3. Procrastination and disorder in time management
1. Do I not continually put things off until tomorrow, until later, until I have more time?
2. Do I respond promptly to messages, letters, or requests that are awaiting my reply?
3. Do I fulfil my duties – in the family, at work – punctually, or do I always make people wait?
4. Do I have the habit of starting many things at once without finishing any of them?
4. Attachment to comfort and excessive rest
1. Do I not rest more than necessary, beyond what my health requires?
2. Am I not too attached to comfort: do I not avoid cold, fatigue, discomfort, even when it would be right to accept them?
3. Do I not often complain about having too much to do, using work as an excuse to do even less?
4. Do I not fall asleep – metaphorically or not – in the face of what God and life ask of me?
5. Use of time and leisure
1. Do I have a reasonable schedule for my day, or do I live from day to day without order or priorities?
2. Do I not waste time on light and useless reading, on empty chatter, on aimless web browsing?
3. Do I make good use of my free time, or do I let it slip away without it bearing fruit?
4. Do I get up and go to bed at reasonable hours, or do I let laziness govern the rhythms of my body too?
5. Do I not spend too much time on leisure activities that go beyond proper rest – games, parties, entertainment – to the point of taking time away from what matters?
6. Personal discipline and awareness
1. Do I not despise personal discipline: commitments made to myself, life habits, resolutions?
2. Am I not chronically neglectful: in small things, in details, in the care of what is entrusted to me?
3. Do I not always prefer the easier path: the light book instead of the one that helps me grow, the convenient answer instead of the true one?
4. Do I not honestly recognise that sloth is not just laziness of the body, but also of the will and the spirit – and that it concerns me?