THE EXAMEN PRAYER

The Examen is a daily Ignatian prayer in which a person receives the day from God, asks for the light of the Holy Ghost, reviews concrete events and interior movements, acknowledges grace and sin, receives mercy, and looks toward the next day with hope.

“Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths. And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.”

The prayer is not merely a moral inventory. It is a conversation with the Father through Christ in the Holy Ghost. The person does not inspect life alone but allows the day to be seen within creation, providence, grace, sin, mercy, vocation, and eternal life.

Gratitude ordinarily comes first. Before concentrating upon failure, the person remembers that life, faith, Baptism, relationships, work, food, beauty, correction, and opportunities to love are gifts. Gratitude protects examination from becoming self-absorption.

The request for light follows. Memory is selective, emotion can distort interpretation, and pride can excuse wrongdoing. The Holy Ghost is asked to reveal both God’s generosity and the person’s response without flattery, panic, or despair.

The day is then reviewed concretely. The person may move hour by hour, relationship by relationship, or from one significant movement to another. Attention is given to actions, words, omissions, motives, bodily states, emotions, decisions, temptations, and graces.

The review asks where faith, hope, charity, truth, courage, humility, and peace increased and where they diminished. It also notices spiritual consolation and desolation without reducing every pleasant or painful feeling to a spiritual message.

Repentance names actual sin. The person avoids vague self-dislike and identifies where love was refused, truth distorted, duty neglected, another person used, or temptation freely accepted. Contrition turns toward God rather than remaining enclosed in shame.

The Examen does not replace sacramental Confession. Mortal sin should be brought to the Sacrament of Penance with sincere contrition and purpose of amendment. The daily prayer helps form conscience and prepare for honest Confession.

The prayer ends by looking ahead. The person considers tomorrow’s known duties, vulnerabilities, relationships, meetings, travel, health needs, and opportunities for service. One concrete grace or resolution is requested rather than a vague promise to be perfect.

A widely used five-movement form is: give thanks, ask for light, review the day, respond with sorrow and mercy, and look ahead. This structure is faithful to the Ignatian school of prayer, although St. Ignatius’s text also contains distinct general and particular examinations.

The General Examen in the Spiritual Exercises attends to thought, word, and deed and supports repentance and Confession. The Particular Examen focuses upon one specific fault or pattern. The Daily Examen of consciousness emphasizes awareness of God’s action and the person’s response throughout the whole day.

These practices overlap but should not be confused. A person may make a Daily Examen each evening, use a Particular Examen for one habit, and prepare separately for sacramental Confession through a fuller examination of conscience.

The Examen is rooted in the First Principle and Foundation. Created things are gifts to be used insofar as they lead toward praise, reverence, service, and salvation. The daily review reveals where a gift helped and where it became a disordered attachment.

It is also a school of discernment. Patterns become visible over time: encouragement after prayer, agitation after certain conversations, temptation during fatigue, peace following truthful action, or discouragement after comparison. These observations guide prudent response.

Consolation should be received gratefully and humbly. Desolation should be faced with patience, prayer, proportionate resistance, and fidelity to sound decisions. The Examen records patterns without turning every emotion into a verdict.

Conscience is not identical with feeling. It is a judgment of reason concerning the moral quality of a concrete act. The Examen forms conscience through Scripture, Church teaching, facts, prayer, virtue, and honest acknowledgment of responsibility.

The Examen should be brief enough to sustain. Ten to fifteen minutes often serves well, but a person may need five minutes during illness or twenty minutes during a retreat. Consistency, truth, and charity matter more than length.

A missed day is not a spiritual catastrophe. Begin again without compensatory anxiety. The prayer serves friendship with God; it is not a score by which spiritual worth is measured.

The Examen can be made in the evening, at the end of work, after adoration, during retreat, or at another stable time. Some persons benefit from a short midday pause and a fuller evening review.

Family life can use a simplified shared gratitude and petition, but private conscience should not be forced into public disclosure. Parents may ask what brought joy, difficulty, or an opportunity to love without requiring children to confess sins in front of others.

Married couples can review shared decisions, gratitude, conflict, finances, parenting, and tomorrow’s needs. Each spouse remains responsible for personal conscience; the prayer must not become interrogation or evidence-gathering.

At work, the Examen notices competence, justice, treatment of colleagues, use of time, ethical pressure, emotional reactions, and the effect of work upon family, health, and prayer. It can expose both negligence and attachment to achievement.

Students can review attention, honesty, use of sources, treatment of classmates, anxiety, sleep, and whether technology assisted or replaced learning. Academic success should be received as gift rather than identity.

In ministry, the Examen asks whether service flowed from Christ or from the need to be needed, praised, obeyed, or seen. It also reviews safeguarding, boundaries, confidentiality, finances, and care for the hidden person.

Suffering belongs within the prayer. Illness, grief, disappointment, and uncertainty are not moral failures. The person notices where grace sustained endurance, where help is needed, and whether avoidable harm requires treatment, boundaries, reporting, or change.

Mental-health symptoms can affect memory, mood, energy, concentration, and guilt. Depression may make the whole day appear dark; anxiety may magnify danger; trauma may fragment recall. Clinical care and spiritual prayer should cooperate.

Scrupulosity can turn the Examen into repeated checking, exhaustive memory searches, and doubt about consent. A scrupulous person should use a short form under one stable confessor and avoid reopening doubtful matters.

Addiction requires truthful review of triggers, access, secrecy, rationalization, use, and consequences. Prayer should lead toward treatment, recovery support, environmental barriers, restitution, and accountability rather than promises unsupported by action.

Digital life belongs within the Examen because devices shape attention, anger, envy, chastity, sleep, and relationships. The person may review messages, news, pornography, scrolling, work intrusion, and whether online conduct served truth and charity.

Artificial intelligence can help create a blank journal template or accessibility aid, but it should not receive private confessional material, diagnose sin, judge culpability, or replace personal prayer. The user remains responsible for every generated summary.

Journaling may help identify patterns, but notes should remain proportionate and secure. A short record of gratitude, significant movement, sin, and tomorrow’s grace is often enough. Excessive recording can become another form of control.

The Examen must respect safeguarding. A director, teacher, superior, employer, or group leader should not demand access to private Examen notes. The internal forum and personal dignity require boundaries.

A group Examen can review a shared ministry or meeting by asking what gave life, what drained life, where the mission was served, and what needs repair. It should not invite public accusation or pressure private disclosures.

Gratitude does not deny injustice. A victim need not thank God for abuse as though evil were a gift. The person may thank God for survival, truth, help, courage, or the possibility of justice while naming the wrong without qualification.

Repentance does not erase consequences. Forgiveness may require restitution, apology, reporting, treatment, changed access, or removal from a role. Mercy restores truth rather than protecting the sinner from responsibility.

Looking ahead is not fortune-telling. The person considers known duties and predictable vulnerabilities and asks for grace. The future remains in providence; the next faithful step is enough.

Over time, the Examen forms a memory of grace. The person learns that God was present in ordinary work, difficult conversations, hidden restraint, correction, beauty, loss, sacramental worship, and small acts of love.

The mature fruit is not constant introspection. It is greater attentiveness during the day, quicker repentance, wiser discernment, deeper gratitude, healthier boundaries, and more generous service.

A Five-Minute Form

1. Thank God for one gift.
2. Ask the Holy Ghost for light.
3. Recall the most significant movement of the day.
4. Name one grace and one failure.
5. Ask forgiveness and grace for tomorrow.

A Fifteen-Minute Form

1. Become aware of God’s presence and give thanks.
2. Ask for truthful and merciful light.
3. Review the day from waking until the present.
4. Notice consolation, desolation, actions, omissions, and bodily state.
5. Thank God for cooperation with grace.
6. Repent of clear sin and identify needed repair.
7. Consider tomorrow’s duties and one vulnerability.
8. End with a colloquy and the Our Father.

An Emergency Short Form

When overwhelmed, pray: “Lord, Thou art here. Thank Thee for sustaining me. Show me the next good act. Forgive what is mine. Lead me to the help I need.” Then contact appropriate pastoral, medical, or emergency support.

A Family Supper Form

Each person may name one gift, one person to pray for, and one hope for tomorrow. No one is required to disclose sin or private emotion.

A Ministry Meeting Form

Ask what served the mission, what hindered it, whose voice was missing, what requires repair, and what concrete next step should be assigned with accountability.

When the Day Felt Entirely Bad

Do not force a positive interpretation. Begin with the smallest truthful gift: survival, a person who answered, the ability to ask for help, a sacrament received, or the grace to name pain honestly. Then distinguish suffering from personal sin. A dark day can contain fidelity even when it contains little felt consolation.

When Anger Dominated the Day

Review what good was threatened, whether the perception was accurate, how the anger was expressed, and what responsibility remains. Anger can reveal injustice, but contempt, revenge, cruelty, and reckless speech require repentance. The next grace may be courage, a boundary, an apology, or a slower factual conversation.

When No Sin Comes to Mind

Do not invent guilt. Give thanks, ask whether love could have been more generous, and entrust the day to God. A clear conscience is a gift when it rests upon truth rather than avoidance. The Examen remains fruitful through gratitude and readiness for tomorrow.

When the Same Sin Repeats

Move beyond repeated promises. Identify the trigger, access, rationalization, time, place, and consequence. Bring grave sin to Confession and connect prayer with a practical plan: remove access, disclose to an accountable person, seek therapy or recovery support, make restitution, and avoid the near occasion.

When Another Person Caused Harm

Review your own response without assuming responsibility for the other person’s sin. Forgiveness does not require denial, immediate trust, reconciliation without repentance, or continued access. Ask what safety, reporting, documentation, pastoral care, clinical help, or lawful action is now required.

When Prayer Becomes Mechanical

Shorten the form and choose one event rather than the whole day. Speak directly to Christ about boredom, resistance, or fatigue. Faithfulness during dryness can be real love, but the schedule, posture, or time may need reasonable adaptation.

When the Examen Produces Anxiety before Sleep

Move the prayer earlier, use a five-minute form, avoid journaling in bed, and end with a fixed act of trust. Persistent insomnia or anxiety deserves professional care. The Examen should prepare restful surrender, not become a nightly tribunal.

When a Major Decision Fills Every Review

Set designated times for discernment rather than reopening the question every evening. Use the Examen to notice movements, but gather facts, seek counsel, and establish a reasonable decision date. Endless review can become avoidance disguised as prayer.

Day 1: Gratitude

Name five concrete gifts before reviewing anything difficult.

Day 2: Light

Ask the Holy Ghost to reveal one grace and one resistance.

Day 3: Relationships

Review how you received and treated each significant person.

Day 4: Work and Duty

Notice fidelity, avoidance, justice, and attachment to success.

Day 5: Consolation and Desolation

Record one movement toward God and one movement away.

Day 6: Repair

Make one apology, restitution, boundary, or practical correction.

Day 7: Hope

Participate in Sunday Mass and review the week as a history of grace.