For other posts in this series about St. Francis de Sales's most well-known work, follow this link to the index, also available in the right sidebar. I outlined the structure of part five here.
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In the last post, we looked at Chapter 5-2, which encourages you to start off your annual review and renewal by considering the value of the resolutions you've made. This chapter ends with a segue into the examination of conscience that is the concern of the next five chapters:
After all these considerations, which should inspire you with many good desires, end quite simply, with an act of thanksgiving and a prayer that you may draw great profit from them. Then retire with humility and great confidence in God, reserving the task of making your resolutions until you have carried out the following exercises.
Two Options for Examination of Conscience
Francis suggests two options. The first is a "long-form" examination of conscience, which he introduces in Chapter 3 (and continues to discuss in Chapter 7):
This exercise is rather long, but remember that there is no need to go through it all at once; examine at one time, for example, your conduct towards God [detailed in chapter 4], at another your duty to yourself and the state of your inclination [chapter 5], at another your conduct towards your neighbor [chapter 6].
...Take these points quite peacefully, one at a time, and consider the state of your heart in their regard since you made your resolution, noting any serious faults.
The second option is "An examination of your general dispositions," introduced and outlined in Chapter 7:
If a detailed examination such as I have suggested would prove too laborious it may be simplified and reduced to a scrutiny of your passions... In other words, what inclinations sway your heart? What passions possess it? Where has it gone most astray? Test the passions of your soul one by one and you will know its state.
Either of these could function as a pre-confession guide to examination of conscience: print 'em up in a pamphlet and carry the with you to the line for the confessional.
One is long and the other short, but length is not the only difference between them:
The first, long form of the examination -- the one that Francis suggests taking three separate sessions to perform -- attends to details of behavior and on the feelings that are signs of our love for the devout life. In it Francis enumerates questions like "How do you talk about yourself? Are you boastful and conceited?" and "Do you do anything to harm your neighbor either directly or indirectly?"
The second, shorter form asks us to examine our consciences from a different direction, so to speak, by enumerating not our actions and thoughts, but our "passions." Francis lists seven to be scrutinized: love, hatred, desire, fear, hope, sadness, and joy. The question is then, do we (for example) desire the right things? do we desire the wrong things? do we desire things in proportion to their worth? and so on.
How to prepare for the examination "sessions."
It is not necessary nor expedient to kneel except for prayer at the beginning and the end. You can easily make your examination while out walking, perhaps more easily still in bed, so long as you can remain sufficiently awake for long enough. In this case, however, you should have read through the necessary considerations before retiring, and aim at completing the whole of this exercise within three days at the most, setting aside some convenient time each day, for it will lose its efficacy if too long protracted.
"It is not necessary... to kneel except for prayer at the beginning and the end." This is a good reminder that an examination of conscience is not a kind of prayer. Prayer is always an appeal to someone outside yourself; an examination of conscience is focused on the self. One prepares for self-examination by praying, asking for help in making the examination, and one ends by spiritual acts (these are given in detail in Chapter 8) thanking God for the insights and asking for pardon and the like, but the stuff in the middle is the simple application of your sense and brain to hard reality. Where do I measure up, and where don't I?
It is not necessary to withdraw from company entirely while carrying out these exercises but you should do so to a certain extent, especially towards evening, retiring early to take the bodily and spiritual repose so necessary for meditation.
During the day make frequent aspirations to God, our Lady, and to the angels, in fact, to all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, your heart filled with love of God and a desire for your spiritual perfection.
The picture I am getting of this examination is of one or three days set apart for a small "season of reflection."
- Designate one day, or three consecutive days, as days to examine your conscience.
- Set aside some time in the evening to be alone for reflection: perhaps in the spot of your usual evening prayer, but perhaps during an evening walk, or even just going early to bed and reflecting there in the time before you close your eyes to sleep.
- Plan that day to get extra rest and quiet during the day, "especially towards evening."
- During that day, keep your upcoming meditation in your heart, and make frequent aspirations (short prayers), expressing your love of God and your desire for spiritual perfection.
- Just before performing the examination, read through the text of Francis's guides (either the long form in chapters 4-6, taking one chapter each day; or the short form chapter 7). Have them with you during the examination if the chosen place and time makes that possible.
Beginning the "session" of examination
This would be the part where Francis implies you should be kneeling for prayer. Francis instructs:
To begin your examination properly place yourself in the presence of God and invoke the Holy Spirit that he may enlighten you and enable you to see yourself clearly as you really are, praying humbly with St. Augustine, "Teach me to know thee, O Lord, and to know myself;" or saying with St. Francis [of Assisi], "Who art thou, O Lord, and who am I?"
Protest that you wish to note your progress, not for your own satisfaction, but to rejoice in it for God's sake; not for your own glory but for his, that you may thank him.
Here is another one of those spots where I sit back and marvel at St. Francis's down-to-earth, pastorally unique approach. If I came across a modern "Guide to Examination of Conscience" that encouraged the penitent to examine his progress in the spiritual life as well as his sins, I'd be annoyed. The examination of conscience isn't a place for pats on the back! It's a place for simple self-accusation! But Francis clearly puts it into perspective: The progress that Francis so confidently predicts has been made only because of God's saving work in the penitent. The penitent owes it to God to acknowledge his progress during the course of this examination, so that he can better thank and praise God for God's saving work in him.
And Francis is no dummy of a pastor either: He is writing for beginners, after all, and he knows that beginners need encouragement. Noticing where God's work is really working counters the sadness that can accompany acknowledgement of failures.
Protest also, if you seem to have made little progress or even fallen back, that you will not give way to discouragement and become faint-hearted and lukewarm, but on the contrary that you will stir yourself to greater efforts, humble yourself and strive with God's grace to remedy your defects.
Examination Session
Now, preliminary prayers finished, you can get up off your knees! Begin thinking and judging, and trust that the Holy Spirit will be quietly working beside you and in you.
Having done this, consider calmly and peacefully how you have behaved up to the present towards God, your neighbor, and yourself...
OR, if you are doing the short form,
Take the points [of the short form -- that is, each passion that is listed] quite peacefully, one at a time , and consider the state of your heart in their regard since you made your resolution, noting any serious faults.
I won't get into the details of the examinations here; you can get it from the book, or you could probably adapt any other published examination of conscience. If you are doing the long form, Day 1 concerns your behavior toward God, Day 2 concerns your behavior toward self, and Day 3 concerns your behavior toward your neighbor.
(The "behavior toward self" part deserves a little description, since many published examinations are organized by the Ten Commandments, which fall into the "love God/love your neighbor" dichotomy. This is, of course, after Christ's greatest commandment. Still, it isn't just "love your neighbor;" the command is to "love your neighbor as yourself," and to evaluate that requires us to determine how we love neighbor and how we love self, and then weigh the two! Anyway, on Day 2 Francis is asking us to consider things like whether we are humble or proud, how we talk about ourselves, whether we seek to correct our faults, and whether we have habits that harm our health.)
Concluding the Session
At the end of each day's session -- whether you do it all in one day or whether you complete only part of the examination each day -- return to your knees.
Having quietly completed your examination and discovered the state of your soul, conclude with the following spiritual acts:
- Thank God for any progress you have made since your resolution, acknowledging that it is entirely due to his mercy.
- Humble yourself.... acknowledging that if this progress is scanty it is entirely due to your lack of fidelity, courage and constancy...
- Promise to praise him eternally for the graces which have enabled you to... make progress...
- Ask pardon for having been so unfaithful and disloyal to grace.
- Offer him your soul that he may be its sole master.
- Beg him to make you completely faithful to him.
- Invoke the saints, our Lady, your guardian angel, your patron saint, St. Joseph, and so on.
After the days of examination are complete
It's not time to go to confession yet (unless maybe if you've discovered serious sins). The next part of the renewal consists of five daily meditations, which Francis goes into in some detail. We will begin looking at these in the next post.
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