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The Examination of Conscience

 

St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Society of Jesus, was a very practical man when it came to prayer. He recommended to his brothers a daily method of examining their lives so that they might better serve the Lord. St. Ignatius taught that the key to a healthy spirituality was twofold: Find God in all things and constantly work to gain freedom to cooperate with God’s will. St. Ignatius proposed a daily exercise, which he called the Examen, that has been used by many Christians ever since. By praying the examination twice daily, countless laypeople worldwide have joined the practice of Jesuits, other priests and religious - in hearing God’s voice in their hearts. Through this daily practice, they learn to discern God’s will and grow in the understanding of God’s beautiful creation. Now called the Examination of Consciousness, it is a simple practice that anyone can learn and benefit from.

 

If practiced once or twice daily, it will help move you closer to the heart of Christ in all your thoughts and deeds. The point of it is to find the sources of braking your freedom in your life - old habits, people, situations, conditions - that lead you to make cramped choices away from what would be God’s will.

 

The more we notice how we can change and move toward God like flowers to the sun, the freer we become. As God continually labours within us to make us more like His Son, we can either cooperate with his unfolding creation or freely choose not to. The choice is ours, and, like the prophets, Ignatius reminds us to “Choose life!” - “The Word of God is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance. See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster...Choose life.” (Dt 30:14, 15, 19)

 

The Examination of Consciousness  is a prayer where we try to find the movement of the Spirit in our daily lives as we reflect on our day. The Examen is a methodical prayer that helps you meet Jesus in your daily life, as he encourages you to do God’s will. The Examen helps you grow in spiritual sensitivity and helps you recognize and receive God’s care and assistance. St. Ignatius tells his Jesuit brothers that the Examen is the one prayer they should not eliminate; it is the one prayer they absolutely must engage in every single day. The Examen is a simple prayer, a prayer for busy people who are continually seeking to do the Lord’s will.

 

This prayer can be made anywhere: in your room, in a church or chapel, on the beach, in a car, at work, at home, in the library. Many people make the examination twice daily: once around lunchtime and again before going to bed. There are five simple steps to the Examen (latin term), which should take 10-15 minutes to complete, and what follows is just one interpretation of these five steps in discerning the movement of God's Spirit in your day.

 

Through this method of praying you can grow in a sense of self and the Source of self; you can become more sensitive to your own spirit with its longings, its powers, its Source; you will develop an openness to receive the supports that God offers.

 

Before you start: Try to be in a place where you are least likely to be disturbed, and where there is the least amount of external noise. Perhaps you might light a candle or change the lighting when you pray to symbolise the start of this activity. Sit comfortably and still yourself; relax, be aware of your breathing, your body and how you are feeling.

 

To begin, make the sign of the cross and remind yourself that you are in the presence of God, your Father, who loves you with a personal, determined, and everlasting love. Then ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you, so that you can know yourself better so as to be able to give yourself better to God. You can do this in your own words.

 

1. Recall that you are in the presence of God. No matter where you are, hilltop or valley, country or city, in a crowd or alone, you are a creature in the midst of creation. As you quiet yourself, become aware that God is present within you, in the creation that surrounds you, in your body, in those around you. The Creator who brought you forth into being is concerned for you. The Spirit of God, sent by Christ, will remind you that you are gifted to help bring creation to its fullness. Ask the Holy Spirit to let you look on all you see with love. "Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; ... it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right ... Love hopes all things." (1 Cor.)

 

2. Spend a moment looking over your day with gratitude for this day's gifts. Be concrete and let special moments or pleasures spring to mind! Recall some encounters with people you love and appreciate, the taste of something good that you ate, the laugh of a child, the fragrance of a flower, the smile brought forth by a kind word, a lesson that you learned. Take stock of what you received and what you gave. Give thanks to God for favours received. Also look at your permanent gifts that allow your participation in this day. Recall your particular strengths in times of difficulty, your ability to hope in times of weakness, your sense of humor and your life of faith, your intelligence and health, your family and friends. God the Father gives you these to draw you into the fullness of life. As you move through the details of your day, give thanks to God for His presence in the big and the small things of your life.

 

3. Ask God to send you His Holy Spirit to help you look at your actions and attitudes and motives with honesty and patience. "When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth." (John 16:13) The Holy Spirit inspires you to see with growing freedom the development of your life story. The Spirit gives a freedom to look upon yourself without condemnation and without complacency and thus be open to growth. Ask that you will learn and grow as you reflect, thus deepening your knowledge of self and your relationship with God.

 

4. Now review your day. This is the longest of the steps. Recall the events of your day; explore the context of your actions. Search for the internal movements of your heart and your interaction with what was before you. Ask what you were involved in and who you were with, and review your hopes and hesitations. Many situations will show that your heart was divided—wavering between helping and disregarding, scoffing and encouraging, listening and ignoring, rebuking and forgiving, speaking and silence, neglecting and thanking. Remember, this is not a time to dwell on your shortcomings; rather, it is a gentle look with the Lord at how you have responded to God's gifts. It is an opportunity for growth of self and deepening your relationship with God. Notice where you acted freely—picking a particular course of action from the possibilities you saw. See where you were swept along without freedom. What reactions helped or hindered you? See where Christ entered your decisions and where you might have paused to receive His influence. "Test yourselves," St. Paul urges, "to see whether you are living in faith; examine yourselves. Perhaps you yourselves do not realize that Christ Jesus is in you." (2 Cor.) His influence comes through His people, the Body of Christ. His influence comes through Scripture, the Word of God. Now, as you pray, Christ's spirit will help you know His presence and concern. As you daily and prayerfully explore the mystery of yourself in the midst of your actions you will grow more familiar with your own spirit and become more aware of the promptings of God's Spirit within you. Allow God to speak, challenge, encourage and teach you. Thus you will come to know that Christ is with you. Christ will continually invite you to love your neighbor as yourself and strengthen you to do this.

 

a) When did I love? One or more of your actions may have been completed in near-perfect freedom. You can recall that you actually were able to choose a specific course that served the common good and the needs of the individual freely, without any “ulterior motive” on your part, in genuine love and charity.

This may be something very simple at first. Perhaps in the supermarket you stretched to get a can from the high shelf for an elderly shopper. Notice here if you acted completely freely and chose in charity from a number of possible actions. (You could have kept walking, even internally criticizing the elderly person for stopping you from your Very Important Things to Do; you could have helped the person and then spent the rest of the day telling everyone how helpful and nice you are; you could have helped but said something to make the elderly person feel insignificant.)

The particular course of action you took from among the many possibilities you saw will help you understand your life in freedom. That is the point of this method of prayer—to see how you can better live in freedom to receive God’s grace.

 

b) Habits and life patterns. Habits are an especially good thing to notice in the Examen. Perhaps you have a habit of setting out to the office porch for a smoke every morning. While smoking is not the best of habits, in the Examen you also need to look at what else happens. Is this the 10 o’clock complaint session for you and your friends? When you all meet to complain about how bad the boss is, how low the pay is, how stupid the hairdo is on the one in the next unit? If your daily habits are dragging down your freedom, in the Examen you will notice them very quickly. You will also begin to notice if specific people are causing you to be negative in your response to life.

 

c) See both the positive and negative. Remember, however, that the Examen is not all about negatives. Take this opportunity to see where Jesus has helped you to have a positive response to life as well. Maybe you could have accepted more help from Christ in one or another of your events this day, but if you did receive his suggestion then notice that as well. Perhaps you chose not to engage in a derogatory conversation about another person, or perhaps you felt a small ping in your chest as you considered and discarded another sort of poor choice. These are signs of God’s grace in your life. The dailyExamen will help you to become more sensitive to them.

 

d) See other forms of God’s presence. You will also notice the signs of God’s grace that have come to you as well through all the ways in which Christ influences you: through God’s people, the Body of Christ, and through his Word in Scripture. When you pray, here or in another type of prayer at another time during the day, Christ will help you better know where he is present and what he is concerned about.
These graces, the intuitions of the things God wishes you to do, will come inside and outside of other regular prayer in addition to this time in theExamen: the Mass, personal meditation, reading of Scripture and of spiritual books. You will continue to grow in God’s love, but you will also recognize that you are the hands and heart, the eyes and ears, the very voice of Christ. This continual growth in freedom will regularly and continually help you to love your neighbour as yourself.

 

5. Reconcile and resolve - “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine.” (Jer 18:6)
One of the hallmarks of Ignatian spirituality is repetition, and the Examen has built-in repetition. In the first and second steps, we ask the Spirit of God to guide us as we look at our day with gratitude.
In the third and fourth steps we ask the Spirit of God to guide us as we review our actions. The final step, our heart-to-heart talk with Jesus, is the fruit of that repetition.
Imagine him, your trusted friend, sitting right there beside you, or before you. Perhaps he holds your hands in his, and looks into your eyes. Perhaps the two of you sit side by side, a couple of old buddies looking out at the ocean. Here you talk with Jesus about what you did and what you did not do.

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Maybe there was something you did wrong—not particularly sinful, but not particularly smart either. Now is the time to tell Jesus you are sorry, and to ask him to be with you the next time the same sort of situation arises. Remember all the good things, and thank the Lord for being with you when you avoided a wrong choice, or when you resisted an old temptation to brake your freedom. Feel the sorrow in your heart when you apologize, but also feel the gratitude when you give thanks for God’s gentle work inside your heart as he continually labours to make you more Christ-like, day by gentle day.

The final stage of the Examen is our heart-to-heart talk with Jesus.

Here you speak with Jesus about your day. You share your thoughts on your actions, attitudes, feelings and interactions. Perhaps during this time you may feel led to seek forgiveness, ask for direction, share a concern, express gratitude, etc. Having reviewed this day of your life, look upon yourself with compassion and see your need for God and try to realize God's manifestations of concern for you.

Conclude the examination of conscience with three things:

 

1. Give thanks for grace, the enlightening presence of God, and especially praise God for the times you responded in ways that allowed you to better see God's life.
2. Resolve with Jesus to move forward in action where appropriate. It is a renewal of your commitment to try and follow Christ faithfully tomorrow. This can be a general renewal, or you can formulate some kind of a specific resolution, e.g. “Lord, tomorrow, with your help, I don’t want to gossip during our lunch party, so please help me to change the subject when it starts, or at least give me the strength to walk away.”
3. An act of contrition telling God you are sorry for your sins - express sorrow for sin, the obscuring darkness that surrounds us all, and especially ask forgiveness for the times you resisted God's light today. This doesn’t have to be a formal act of contrition (you can use your own words), but sometimes it helps to use a simple formula. For example, you can use the act of contrition utilized at the end of confession, or the “I confess to almighty God…” prayer we utilize at the beginning of Mass.

 

This may seem like an incredibly complicated way to spend from five to fifteen minutes. But in reality it isn’t. You will find your own rhythm, and the Holy Spirit will help you. The important thing is to make this examination of conscience a staple of your daily diet. If you find it hard at first because your mind is racing, you may want to try doing it in writing: a) write down two specific things you are thanking for from the day; b) write down one thing about your behaviour from the day that you would change if you could go back in time; c) write down a petition for the grace to follow Christ faithfully tomorrow.

Once you've done the Examen a few times, you will find your own rhythm and method. Cover all five points daily with freedom to dwell more on one than another, as the Spirit moves you. You might also like to add some music, candles or images to help you pray.

End the entire Examen with the Our Father.

 

 

 

Resources:
http://norprov.org/spirituality/ignatianprayer.htm
http://www.urban-monk.org/media/pdfs/ExaminationofConsciousness.pdf
http://www.americancatholic.org/newsletters/cu/ac0303.asp
http://marriageretreats.webs.com/exercises/Daily%20Examination%20of%20Consciousness.htm