Ignatius' Examen
Ask, Be Grateful, and Be Patient
How to Pray the Examen
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Here's an explanation of the Examen by Dennis Hamm, SJ: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/rummaging-for-god-praying-backward-through-your-day/
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1. Place yourself in God’s presence. Give thanks for God’s great love for you.
2. Pray for the grace to understand how God is acting in your life.
3. Review your day — recall specific moments and your feelings at the time.
4. Reflect on what you did, said, or thought in those instances. Were you drawing closer to God, or further away?
5. Look toward tomorrow — think of how you might collaborate more effectively with God’s plan. Be specific, and conclude with the “Our Father.”
For the two Examens, use the time to review your half day since the last Examen. It is helpful to use your calendar if you have a busy schedule during the day, in order to remember where you have been, what you have been doing, and who you talked to. If something jumps out at you (an encounter either positive or negative) during the day, if you had some strong feeling emerge, pay attention to that place. What were you doing, thinking, working on? Who were you with (if anyone)? What was the experience about? How are you feeling or what are your thinking as you recall it? Journal the strong feelings, thoughts and decisions that emerge.
Be sure to thank God for the graces and opportunities that the day brought.
Be patient with yourself as you juggle these prayer times and different modes of prayer. Let yourself recognize that God is with you no matter what. Don’t give up in discouragement.
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. - Hebrews 12:11-13
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Week 10 Prayer -- This week a new pattern of prayer
Days 1,2, and 4, 5 and 7:
Organize your schedule to add two 15-minute Examen times. Shorten your personal prayer time if you need to but keep some time where you meditate (consider) on Scripture or on other content and practice the colloquy and journaling as you have been doing up to this time.
The Grace to pray for during the personal prayer period these first few days:
- For the Holy Spirit to give you the gift of self-knowledge – to recognize the moments when you are cooperating with grace in prayer and at the moments when you are not in the prayer time.
- For God to deepen your love for Him and to know and understand his Will for you this day.
Read and consider deeply the Gospel for each day. The texts may be found in “Give us this Day” from Liturgical Press, Or “Magnificat” (not sure of the publisher but I think easy to find the source on line.) Or if you prefer to use the computer or your phone go to the following website: https://bible.usccb.org/
Engage in a conversation (colloquy) with Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, Mary or one of the Apostles.
Journal the interior movements of feelings, thoughts and decisions. It is always useful to journal these at the beginning of prayer as well –generally using some brief words or symbols to indicate what you are thinking/feeling/judging etc. such as: “Monday, May 20, 6:30 am – tired and annoyed at God. Want to quit but feel obligated to stay with it today.”
Days 3 and 6 – engage in a repetition of one of the prayers that either gave serious consolation (joy, peace, patience, etc. or answer to prayer or divine response to grace requested) or serious desolation (anger, frustration, fatigue, depression of despair etc.) or where if felt like things shut down (just silent and barren). Begin at the place where the response of consolation, or active desolation or passive desolation occurred.
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