How to begin confession...
 

• Say the following:  “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”
• Say how long it has been since your last confession.
• Then state:  "These are my sins...”

Some helpful tips:
 

1. Confess your sins clearly and distinctly in number and kind and do not tell the surrounding "back story" unless absolutely necessary to the matter of the sinful event.
2. Confess only your own sins, not the perceived sins or failings of a family member.
3. Remember that the Sacrament is not a time for personal counseling or spiritual direction.
4. Understand the difference between a sin (a willed act or thought in violation of God's will or law) and a temptation.  A temptation - in and of itself - is not a sin.

ACT OF CONTRITION 

O my God, I am heartily sorry  for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God,  who are all-good and deserving of all my love.  I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.
 
 

Precepts of the Church

- Am I married in the Catholic Church according to Church law?
Did I keep the fast, abstinence and penance during Lent and do penance?
- Do I tithe or regularly give to the Church, support my pastor and charities?
- Do I try to evangelize and spread the gospel?
 
1.  I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.
 
- Do I pray every day?
- Have I intentionally been distracted during Mass by my technology (cell phone) or by other means?
- Have I been involved with superstitious practices, occult, witchcraft?
- Have I ever received Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin?  How many times?
- Have I intentionally failed to confess some mortal sin in my previous confessions?
 
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
 
- Have I used God's name lightly or carelessly?
- Did I curse or take a false oath?
- Did I use bad language?
- Have I wished evil on anyone?
  
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
 
- Did I miss Mass on Sundays or holy days of obligation through my own fault? How many times?
- Do I try to keep Sunday as a day of rest?
 
4. Honor your father and your mother.
 
- Do I honor and obey my parents?
- Do I care for them in their old age?
- Have I neglected my family responsibilities to spouse and children?
- Is my family life centered around Christ and his teaching?
- Have I broken any ethical norms in the workplace?
 
5. You shall not kill.
 
- Have I harbored hatred, anger or resentment in my heart towards anyone?
- Have I discriminated against anyone based on race or how they look?
- Did I quarrel with anyone or desire revenge?
- Did I destroy someone’s reputation on social media, Facebook or other? 
- Did I refuse to forgive?
- Was I disrespectful?
- Have I harmed anyone?
- Did I try to commit suicide or harm myself?
- Have I abused drugs or alcohol?
- Have I binged on media, video games or all-night TV sessions?
- Did I consent to, recommend, advise, or actively take part in an abortion or in euthanasia? How many times?
- Did I use IVF?  Did I allow the doctors to kill unwanted embryos?  How many embryos?
- Did I donate any embryos for others people or for research? How Many?
- Have I given scandal to anyone by my sins, thereby leading them to sin?
 
6 and 9. You shall not commit adultery / You shall not desire your neighbor's wife.
 
- Have I been unfaithful to my marriage vows in action or thought?  How many times?
 Did I choose to divorce my spouse or counsel someone to divorce who was in a sacramental marriage?
- Have I been engaged in sexual activity with a member of the opposite sex or the same sex? How many times?
- Am I envious of another's spouse or family?
- Have I consented to impure thoughts?
- Have I indulged in pornographic material? How many times per week?
- Did I send or text sexually explicit material about myself?
- Have I visited sexual chat websites? 
- Have I masturbated?  How many times per week?
- Did I engage in impure jokes or conversations?
- Am I modest in dress?
- Have I practiced any form of artificial contraception in marriage?
- Did I use any form of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). sperm injections etc.?

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
 
- Have I lied, gossiped or spoken behind anyone’s back?
- Have I ruined anyone’s good name?
- Do I reveal information that should be confidential?
- Am I sincere in my dealings with others?
- Did I judge others rashly?

10. You shall not desire your neighbor's goods.
 
- Did I steal or damage another's property? How much?
- Am I honest with my employer / employee?
- Do I gamble excessively?
- Do I seek to share what I have with the poor and needy?
- Have I envied other people?


FOR MARRIED PEOPLE
 
- Do I threaten divorce as punishment to my spouse?
- Do I regularly forgive my spouse? Do I hold grudges?
- Do I forgive my in-laws?
- Do I pray with my spouse?
- Do I sacrifice for my spouse?
- Do I live as a bachelor or bachelorette?
- Do I physically abuse my spouse?
- Do I emotionally abuse my spouse, through constant ridicule, sharply restricting finances or travel?
- Have I withheld sexual relations from my spouse for extended periods? (For reasons not related to health)
 
 FOR SINGLE YOUNG  PEOPLE

- Do I think that I have to be sexually active when dating?
- Do I bring my Catholic Faith into my dating?
- Do I build relationships based solely on emotions and do not bring them under the guidance of Reason enlightened by the Holy Spirit?
- Do I dwell on past hurts, past divorce?
-Am I afraid of the commitment that leads to marriage?
- Do I give of my time, talent and person to the Church and community?
- Do I sacrifice for others?
- Did I ever make a proper discernment of my vocation?
 

FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS

- Have I participated in or condoned Euthanasia, or hastened someone’s death through high doses of drugs?
- Have I prescribed, promoted or passed out Contraceptives, condoms, pills etc.?
- Have I neglected any patients?
- Have I unnecessarily prescribed or given away potentially addictive drugs?
- Have I promoted quackery (dubious medicine)?
- Do I make a profit motive more important than persons?
- Do I refuse to treat the poor?
- Do I promote chastity and marriage as I can in my practice?
- Do I regularly study Catholic medical ethics?

FOR PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS

(Mention during confession “I am a religious, I am a priest” etc.)
 
- Do I live my vows, chastity, poverty, obedience?
- Do recite the Liturgy of the Hours according to rules of my order, diocese?
- Do I practice mental prayer daily, adoration other?
- Do I live as a bachelor, bachelorette?
- Do I have a plan of life?
- Have I kept the daily rules of my religious order?
- Have I been charitable in my dealing with other religious?
- Do I live a balanced life with exercise, social activities with other religious or priests, spiritual conferences?
- Do I witness to my religious life when not dressed in habit or clerics on vacation or in other places?
- Did I give my scandal to others by unreligious activities?
- Am I prudent and discrete during counseling? Is the place and time discrete, without potential scandal?
- Do I maintain healthy boundaries in pastoral work?
- Do I have a special concern for the poor?
- Do I disdain or ignore certain types of ethnic groups, those of a particular political orientation, those who seem too devotional to me or those with some kind of mental illness?