A group of Jesuits from Colombia sing the prayer of Saint Ignatius, the prayer he says you should always begin with, putting yourself wholly at God’s disposal, asking God for the grace to be completely open to him: ‘Grant, Lord, that all my intentions, actions and operations be directed purely to your praise and your service.’
This introduction to the Pray as you go Examens is designed to help those unfamiliar with this form of prayer to use the Examens, and to make them part of everyday life. The Examen has been part of the Christian spiritual tradition for centuries, but S. Ignatius Loyola was very specific in instructing his followers to pray the Examen twice a day, at noon, and at the end of the day. The prayer is usually divided into five stages, although some of the prayers on this site depart from this pattern. The stages are:
Thanksgiving
Seeking light
Looking back at our experience
Sorrow
Asking God’s help for the future.
This introduction aims to help you understand more about the Examen, and help you make it part of your regular prayer life.
Here are some words of Jesus from the Gospel of John: No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me.
We are aware that the Father is continually drawing each one of us to Himself in and through Christ. We experience his action in our feelings, moods, impulses and desires.
God reveals Himself in our feelings as much as He does in our clear and distinct ideas. If we want to find God more intimately, we must let Him draw us at the core of our being, which means becoming more aware of our feelings. Here we recognise God’s ceaseless invitation to come closer, to be more like Him, to be at one with Him.
We are also conscious of the resistance to Him, which arises from sin in ourselves and in the world about us.
Which of my feelings and moods are leading me to God?
Which of my feelings and moods are leading me away from Him?
Feelings are important. We are not talking about feelings on the surface, but about movements deep in our hearts, where God has places His Word.
If we stay away from the depths where we are truly ourselves, we shall miss much that the Spirit is saying to us. At the level of our deeper and more lasting feelings we discover ourselves and our real relationship with God. We see what has to be faced, understood, decided, and acted upon.
There are times when each of us has to face questions like:
Is God real?
What does Jesus mean to me?
The answers we give from the heart make us more mature and give us a clearer idea of our identity and our relationship with God.
Some moments of renewed conviction can be described as a deep felt, personal experience of faith. These are times when we surrender to God. To begin with there may be fear, but peace and joy eventually tell me that God makes His home in me and I make my home in Him.
I have to learn to take each present experience and to place it at a level where I am trying to live out my complete surrender to God. If my present preoccupations fit into the deeper attitude of surrender there will be a sense of harmony, peace, and joy. If I experience disturbance, anxiety, or sadness I am not at home with God and I am going in the wrong direction.
We have to be in touch with our feelings in order to sort them out and avoid being blown about by them. The Examen is a good way of knowing my true self, and after the Eucharist, it provides one of the best opportunities for a daily, intimate meeting with Christ.
The Real Goal of the Examen
And this is the real goal of the Examen; God is drawing each one of us to Himself in a unique and intimate way. The purpose of the Examen is to recognise this fact and to see how I am responding. When I am aware of my feelings I can discern two spontaneous forces within me: good and evil.
The Examen is a daily, prayerful exercise in discernment, helping me to respond to God’s loving invitation in all my daily activities. It helps me to find God in all things. The Examen is not primarily concerned with good and bad actions, but rather with the impulses that underlie them.
In our deeper feelings
The Father draws me to Himself
While sinful nature and a sinful world
Take me away from the Father.
I can become increasingly sensitive to the quality of my new relationship with the Father, whose call can take a new form at different stages of my life.
Over the years I have come to know God’s special ways of drawing me to Himself and to be aware of my responses. I can see how my life has been shaped by this interplay of call and answer. Each day the Father is asking me to deepen and develop my true identity as a companion of Jesus; not any companion of Jesus, by the companion of Jesus that I am at this moment.
In countless ways God reveals Himself and His wonderful plans for all humankind in Christ. In prayer I experience His personal challenge to me. Examen is prayer; it is a preparation for other forms of prayer and flows naturally from them; it helps me to sense God’s action and to find Him not on in times of prayer, but in every incident of my life.
“I forget the past and strain ahead for what is still to come. I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus”
If this is the first time you have prayed the Examen, use the silence or stillness after this track has finished to prepare yourself for the prayer.