This is a prayer which St. Ignatius felt was central to the life of a "discerning" Christian.
It is sometimes called the "awareness examen", or the "daily examen", or just the
"examen". It is NOT the same thing as the "examination of conscience" which we might
do before the sacrament of reconciliation, or even as a daily exercise.
The examen is a prayer where we try to find the movement of the Spirit in our daily
lives. It is a prayer that is like a review of the day. In it, we are looking to find the
movement of the Spirit, and to discern how the Spirit is calling us. In the examen, then,
we are going through the events of the day and discerning where we were aware of the
movement of the Spirit (in thoughts, emotions, and desires), and what our response to
that movement of the Spirit was.
The prayer itself should only take about fifteen minutes, and we should pray the examen
at least once a day, usually before sleeping. When life becomes busy, or if it is difficult to
remember all the events of the day, we might do the examen twice, once at mid-day, and
once at night.
The examen has five parts, but you may find that some of the parts overlap. It is a guide
for discerning the Spirit in daily life, rather than a set of steps. Still, the five parts give us
some help in becoming experienced in discerning the movement of the Spirit.
(1) First, we pray that the Spirit will be present to us, so that we might be able to
remember, reflect and respond to the Spirit's movement during the day. We must
always remember that the examen is a prayer, not merely a reflection. We are
speaking and listening to God in our hearts. So, we begin by placing ourselves in
the presence of God, and asking the Father to send the Spirit - the Spirit who
opens our eyes to His presence during the day, and the Spirit who guides us as we
live our Christian lives.
(2) Secondly, we pray in gratitude for the day. We thank God for the gift of life, for
creation, for faith, for the people we have met and loved, for the gift of the
presence of the Spirit in our lives, for the graces that we have received from God
in our work, families, friends, and recreation. This is a prayer of gratitude in
general: it is to open our hearts in gratitude and generosity. It may also lead us to
a more specific recollection of the day, which is the next part of the prayer.
(3) Next, we begin to recall the specific events of the day. This is not just an exercise in
memory. We are not just trying to remember what happened. We are recalling the
events and the people with whom we interacted in order to recall when and how
the Spirit moved us. When did I feel the movement of the Spirit? How was I
moved? With a particular emotion? With an insight? Did I experience of the love
and mercy of God? Sometimes it is difficult to know how the Spirit is moving in
our daily life, so we have to practice being aware of the presence of the Spirit.
And we must learn how to discern the presence of the Spirit. In general, we can
say that the Spirit is present when we are moved to greater faith, hope and love.
With practice, we will be able to discern the many different ways that the Spirit
speaks to us in our emotions, in our thoughts, and in our activities.
(4) We then consider how we responded to the presence of the Spirit in the events of the
day. Did we respond with generosity, and follow the Spirit with faith, hope and
love; or did we turn away, and think only of ourselves and what we think we need
and want. We experience "grace" when we respond with generosity and
obedience to the will of God in the Spirit; and we experience our "sinfulness"
when we turn away from the Spirit, and away from the love of God. In each event
or interaction of the day that we recollected in (3), then, we consider our response
to the Spirit.
(5) Finally, through our recollection, we turn to the merciful and loving Father and
present our responses of the day to Him: Where we experienced grace, we offer
Him our thanks, and we pray that He will continue to make us aware of his Spirit,
and give us the strength to persevere in faith. Where we have failed to be aware
of and respond to the Spirit, we ask that God might forgive us our weakness and
selfishness, and we pray that He will give us the strength to be more aware and
more loving in our response to the Spirit in our daily lives.
You may want to end the examen with an "Our Father" or a "Glory be". With time, you
will notice that the prayer of the examen will lead you to be more aware of the Spirit, not
only when you are recollecting at the end of the day, but as things and people affect you
in your daily life. The goal of the examen, then, is really to create an on-going
awareness of God's presence among us, so that we might begin to recognize "God in all
things". In a way, then, it is intended to help us to discern the presence of the Spirit, so
that in knowing Christ and participating in his mission, we may know the will of the
Father, who reveals himself through Christ and in the Spirit.
Try to be faithful to this prayer. It is the heart of our Christian lives. God is with us.
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