The two practices of planning our time for prayer and focusing our days around the truly important, are incomplete without the thrid complimentary practice: an examination of conscience.
This applies not only to the practices we have discussed, but to the whole idea of stewardship of time.
It is a time-honored tradition to come before the Lord at least once a day and examine our actions and attitudes up to that point in the day.
Often made at the end of our day, commonly called a nightly examen, an examination of conscience helps us to take stock of the ways we were faithful to the Lord and the ways we fell short in fidelity and love.
The Ten Commandments serve as a basis for examining our consciences.
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he prefaced them with a reminder: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…” (Exodus 20:2).
In other words, God loves his people and took the initiative in enacting his love by saving them from Egypt.
The commandments that follow this reminder delineate our proper response to the love and solicitude God has already shown to us.
It is a matter of love responding to love.
Jesus himself makes this same connection: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:9–10).
Because abiding in Christ is a matter of love, our reading of the Ten Commandments ought to go beyond the most immediate meaning of each commandment— it ought to follow love onward to discover how other matters are also implicated.
For example, the third commandment—Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy—outlines the Christian response to God’s love on Sunday, worshipping him publicly and liturgically in church.
But there’s more than just that to reflect on, based on this one commandment: are we praying privately on Sunday as well?
Are we taking the proper rest and leisure?
And—here we return to stewardship of time—are we setting aside that time for both worship and loving moments together as a family, as friends, etc.?
The element of time runs through all the commandments in some way, because we are human and we live in and through time.
The first commandment upholds God as the one God.
Do we divide our time in a way that demonstrates that, or would a rigorous accounting reveal other gods in our lives who claim for themselves more of our time?
The fifth commandment enjoins us not to kill, which can also mean destroying reputation through our words.
Do we waste our time with gossip and detraction, which, in addition to doing wrong to another, takes away from time spent on the upbuilding words of friendship, on work, and on family?
The sixth commandment requires cultivating chastity.
Do our distractions tend toward the lurid or sexually enticing, rather than allocating our time wisely to wholesome, restful activities that foster chastity, health, and beauty?
Becoming aware of time, and our stewardship of it, in a daily examination of conscience strengthens our response to the limited gift of time that we have been given.
Today examine your conscience and test your day, preferably in the light of the Ten Commandments.
Ask the Holy Spirit to inspire your reflection and to spark both heartfelt contrition and renewed love.
