Salesian Literature

Chapter 4:  Examination of one’s state with regard to God

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1. What is your attitude towards mortal sin?[1]  Have you a firm determination never to commit it no matter what may happen?  Has this determination lasted from the time of your Firm Resolution until now?  The foundation of this spiritual life is in this determination.

2. What is your attitude towards God’s commandments?  Do you find them good, delightful and pleasant?  My daughter, he whose taste is in good order and whose stomach is healthy loves good food and rejects the bad.

3. What is your attitude towards venial sin?  We cannot avoid committing venial sins now and then, but have you a particular inclination to any venial sin? And, what is worse, is there any for which you have attachment and love?

4. What is your attitude towards spiritual exercises? Do you love them?  Do you value them?  Do you find them troublesome?  Are you disgusted with them?  To which do you feel less inclined and to which more inclined?  Do you feel dislike for any of the following: hearing the word of God, going to confession, taking spiritual advice, preparing for and receiving communion, controlling your inclinations?  If you discover something to which your heart is less inclined, examine from where this distaste comes and what is its cause.

5. What is your attitude towards God himself?  Do you take pleasure in often recalling God to mind?  In doing this, do you feel any pleasant delight?  David says: I remember God and was delighted (Ps. 77:5-6).  Do you feel within you a certain satisfaction in tasting his love?  Do you find joy in thinking of the immensity of God, of his goodness, of his gentleness?  If the thought of God comes to you amid worldly activities and its vanities, does it find a ready welcome and does it fill your heart?  Does your heart turn towards God and in some way wait for him?  There are certainly such persons.  A woman’s husband returns home from afar.  As soon as she sees him returning and hears his voice, though she may be fully engaged in work held back by some urgent preoccupation, her heart is not held back but laves all other thoughts to think of her husband who has just come back.  It is the same with those whoa love God greatly.  However busy they may be when the thought of God comes to them, they find the return so delightful, that they give little attention to anything else.  This is a very good sign.

6. What is your attitude towards Jesus Christ, God and man?  Do you find pleasure in him?  Bees take pleasure in honey, and wasps in garbage.  In the same way, the good find happiness in Jesus Christ and have a most tender love for him.  But the wicked take pleasure in vanities.

7. What is your attitude towards our Lady, the Saints and your Guardian Angel?  Do you love them greatly?  Have you special confidence in their kind-heartedness?  Are their pictures, their life stories, their praise pleasing to you?

8. As to you tongue, how do you speak about God?  do you take pleasure in speaking well of him according to your condition of life and your ability?  Do you love to sing sacred songs?

9. As regards works, do you have at heart the external glory of God and doing something in his honour?  Those who love God, love to add beauty to his house (Ps. 26:8).

10. Are you aware of having renounced any attachment and given up anything for God?  For it is a clear expression of love to deprive oneself of something for the sake of the one who is loved.  What have you renounced for the love of God?

 

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[1]  The first seven question of this Chapter begin literally with “what is the attitude of your heart towards…”

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