the mystical temple of god 626 cially of the present day). Be blessed therefore in Your gifts, and Holy in all Your works, who live and reign forever and ever. The second: Enlighten, Lord, the eyes of my mind, that I may acknowledge Your good deeds and my evil deeds: may I bless You for the former, and weep over the latter and amend them with Your grace for your glory. Amen. The third: Call to mind what you have thought, said and done, so that you may perceive whether any sin or imperfection has not been committed in your thoughts, words and deeds against the law of God, of nature, or human law, so that you begin to feel just sorrow for it and write down what is to be submitted in confession. This is what St. Leo134 stresses: “Let each one scrutinize his conscience, and set himself before himself by censorship of proper judgement” (Sermons 3, for Lent).135 Augustine does not advise anything different, when he says: “Let man ascend the tribunal of his own mind against himself, and in the court established in his heart let there be present reflection as the accuser, conscience as the witness, fear as the executioner, and let the blood of the soul making a confession flow through his tears” (Book 50, Homily 1).136 The fourth is derived from there. When you discover some defect or offense in the conscience, or more of them, you should make the following act of contrition concerning them, both individually if they are grave, and in general: I am sorry, my Lord and God, the supreme and infinite Good, out of pure love for You, that some time, but especially today, 134 St. Leo the Great, Doctor of the Church (d. 461). 135 St. Leo the Great, On Lent III, in: Sermons of St. Leo the Great, Sermon XLI, Ch. 1: PL 54, 272 (n. 153). 136 This quotation was not able to be verified according to the author’s reference. Jarra too noted a different division of the sermons of St. Augustine in PL.
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