What happens when we complete our Lenten Journey this year? We are called to make some changes, to live a new way, and try to avoid returning to old sinful ways. Christ got is so right during his agony in the garden when He said “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mt 26:41 & Mk 14:38)”

Even St Paul recognized how difficult this faith journey will be. He acknowledges his own propensity to sin and fall short, even after his dramatic conversion experience. He sums up his faith journey and his struggles in part in Romans 7: 14-25. He says in Verse 15: What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. He goes on to state in verses 18-20: For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Our examination of our lives should be an ongoing process. To aid in that I want to share some resources with you. The first is from a friend who finds the following helpful.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Evils From Within

Nothing makes more visible how much he hates sin than what he has done to destroy it. Is it not too much to say that he wanted to descend from heaven and die himself to wipe it out?. . . The Son of God has hated sin as far as to want to die in order to destroy it. . . .
I speak of the faults that Christians who live in half-heartedness are accustomed to commit deliberately and of which they make for themselves habits that they hardly bother to correct. Such are the minor angers, the minor swipes, the words of contempt, the slight gossip, the mockery, the lies, the irreverence and the voluntary distractions in prayer, the desire to please people, the humorous talk that can produce nasty thoughts, the curious looks, too great a love of neatness in dress, laziness, the minor overindulgence in drinking and in eating, the negligence in things that pertain to duty, as in the instruction of servants and in the education of children; in a word, all sins of whatever kind they may be, when the issue is slight or there is more lack of consideration than malice. I say. . .that these faults, above all when they are actual–when one often falls back into them, when one neglects to mend one’s ways from them, when one counts them for nothing–I say that these are the greatest evils.
Of many reasons that present themselves in order to prove this, I choose not but one sole of them, which will be the whole subject of our discussion. The little sins are great evils because they are great dispositions to the greatest sins; they are all mortal in this sense that they lead to the death of the soul, that they dispose to mortal sin; they dispose to it, both from the side of God whose graces they deplete, and from the side of the individual whose forces they exhaust. ———-Saint Claude La Colombiere

http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/viewpdf/default.aspx?article-title=The_Spiritual_Direction_of_Saint_Claude_de_la_Colombiere.pdf

That is why it is so important to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly. Venal sins are like an infection. If left untreated they can grow into something far worse.
While there are many guides even apps for the examination of conscience, I thought I would share this one found on pages 10 & 11 of, Kingdom of Happiness; Living the Beatitudes in Everyday Life, by Fr. Jeffery Kirby, STD.

• Do I acknowledge that my happiness comes from God and His blessings?
• Do I let myself fully understand how great is my need for God and His grace in my life?
• Do I actively participate in Mass and seek ways to revere God and his majesty?
• Am I ungrateful to God and those around me?
• Do I blame situations or other people for my misery?
• Do I accept sufferings as opportunities to mature and deepen in my desire for happiness?
• Do I believe myself to be better than or superior to others?
• Do I engage in flattery or gossip?
• Do I overspend, live beyond my means, cheat others, or live in a needlessly frugal way with myself or others?
• Am I temperate in my use of food, alcohol, medication. And the treatment of my body, or the body of another?

And last but not least, there are the Ten Commandments.
There are many guides available from many sources which are based on the commandments. Do not hesitate to avail yourself of one of these.

http://www.divinemercysunday.com/pdf/ConfessionGuide2.pdf

http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/penance/upload/Bulletin-Insert-Penance-ENG.pdf

Have a blessed Lent.