Be ready when He comes
Practical help for the inner life: look honestly at your heart, return to God in confession, and give each day a shape of prayer.
Examination of conscience
Tick anything you want to bring to confession. Nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere. It disappears when you close the page.
How to make a good confession
Examine your conscience
Use the questions above. Recall your sins since your last confession.
Begin
Make the sign of the cross and say: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been [time] since my last confession.”
Confess
Name your sins simply. For serious sins, say what kind and roughly how many times.
Listen
The priest may offer advice and will give you a penance, often a prayer or an act of kindness.
Pray the Act of Contrition
Tell God you are sorry and resolve not to sin again. The traditional words are below.
Receive absolution
The priest absolves you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Answer: “Amen.”
Do your penance
Complete it as soon as you can, and thank God for His mercy.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
A daily rule of prayer
- Waking
Morning offering
Give the whole day to God before it begins.
- Morning
Holy Mass
Carlo went every day. Even once in the week beyond Sunday changes a life.
- Noon
The Angelus
Three Hail Marys recalling the Incarnation.
- 3 pm
Divine Mercy Chaplet
The hour of Christ’s death, prayed on rosary beads.
- Evening
The Rosary
Twenty minutes walking through the life of Christ with Mary.
- Night
Examination of conscience
A short look back at the day, then sorrow and thanks.
Fasting
Abstain from meat on Fridays, or choose another penance. Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Guarding the senses
Choose what you watch, scroll and listen to. Pope Francis held up Carlo as someone who used the internet without letting it trap him (Christus Vivit 104-106).