Live the Good Life - Live Devout

Do you examine your conscience?  How often do you go to Sacramental Confession?  What is included in your examination of conscience?

This exercise is the foundation of a spiritual life built on the Truth.  We must face the truth about our own lives before we can more on in growth.  For example, if a person seeking to grow in the life of prayer is hateful to his brother, or is stuck in some secret sin, how can he move forward?

We begin our examen by "placing ourselves in God's presence."  This is only facing the reality that God is already and truly with us and we only need to reflect on this reality for a moment for it to change our perspective.  Once we have done this we ask Him for the necessary means to know ourselves and the state of our soul.  We can then begin to either just review the previous day, minute by minute, or review the time period since our last confession. 

This is where the hard work begins - facing ourselves with the eyes of Jesus and Mary.  We must hold ourselves up to these models of the Christian life to get an extremely realistic picture of our state of affairs.   We should compare our attitudes, ideas, and actions to that of Jesus and Mary and not be afraid to face the grim reality of our sin.  The fact is, we are sinners and should never hide from our sins, but rather bring it out into the open for Jesus to conquer.   How do you compare to these two models of the Christian life?

A couple of good books I recommend for learning the way of Jesus and Mary are "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis and "The Imitation of Mary" by Alexander de Rouville.  Read these slow and reflectively and do not be afraid to act upon the teachings therein.