Advent Self-Reflection and Confession
Examen
If you are doing this in a group, one person can lead the rest through a few minutes of reflecting on each step of the Examen. If you are doing this on your own, take as long as you need.
Become Aware of God’s Presence. Thank him for His love for you. Rest in his presence and love for some time.
Pray for the Holy Spirit’s grace and insight so that you may see and understand God’s involvement in your life and so you may see your life clearly.
Review your past weeks, months or even year. Recall specific moments when you felt distant from God or when your behaviors, attitudes, or actions fell short of what God would desire of you. What were your feelings and responses at the time? Focus your attention on a few moments that particularly stand out to you.
Take those moments that stood out you and reflect more deeply on what you did, said, or thought. What were your desires in the moment? Your motivations?
Respond to what God has shown you with confession, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you all that you need in order to live the life God is calling you to live.
Litany of Penitence
You can alternate prayers between a leader and others or if you are alone, you can pray the entire litany yourselves.
Leader: Please pray with me…
All: Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
Leader: We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.
All: Have mercy on us, Lord.
Leader: We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit. All: Have mercy on us, Lord.
Leader: We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives, All: We confess to you, Lord.
Leader: Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people,
All: We confess to you, Lord.
Leader: Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,
All: We confess to you, Lord.
Leader: Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,
All: We confess to you, Lord.
Leader: Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,
All: We confess to you, Lord.
Leader: Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, All: Accept our repentance, Lord.
Leader: For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, All: Accept our repentance, Lord.
Leader: For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
All: Accept our repentance, Lord.
Leader: Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;
All: Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.
Leader: Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,
All: that we may show forth your glory in the world.
Leader: By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,
All: Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.