February 2008

The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin

Pauca Verba (a few words)

In the Imitation of Christ – there is a section entitled “Examination of Conscience” in which Jesus addresses the soul. Good Lenten reading and an incentive to make a soul-searching Sacramental Confession!

“Carefully examine your conscience. Cleanse and purify it to the best of your power by true sorrow and humble confession, that you may have no burden. Let the memory of all your sins grieve you. Confess to God in the secret depths of your heart all the miseries your passions have caused.

Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so passionate and undisciplined, so full of lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so often occupied in many fantasies, so inclined to exterior things and so inattentive of what lies within, so prone to laugher and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to sacrifice, so greedy, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, so prompt to rest and so slow to labor, so sleepy in chapel, so careless at prayer, so quickly distracted, so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action.

When you have confessed and despised these and other faults with sorrow and great displeasure because of your weakness, be firmly determined to amend you r life day by day and to advance in goodness. Then with complete resignation and with your entire will, offer yourself upon the altar of your heart by entrusting with faith both body and soul to my care. For there is no more worthy offering, no greater satisfaction for washing away sin than to offer yourself purely and entirely to God. If a person does what he can and is truly sorry, however often he comes to God for grace and pardon, God will no longer remember his sins, but all will be forgiven him.”

Do I really live by faith? Listen to Saint Paul in the Letter to the Philippians.

“…for I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be. I know now how to live when things are difficult and I know how to live when things are prosperous. In general and in particular I have learned the secret of eating well or going hungry – of facing either plenty or poverty. I am ready for anything through the strength of the One who lives within me.”