Where the Examen comes from
Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) did not invent the practice of looking back over the day; antiquity already knew it. What is new in him is the order: five steps, the same every day, short enough to fit inside a full life.
He thought so highly of it that he allowed his brothers to drop their meditation when things were pressing – but not the Examen. It is the exercise that turns a day lived into a day prayed.
In the Spiritual Exercises the instruction stands at number 43 and is called the "General Examination of Conscience". The second, narrower form – the Particular Examen – stands at SE 24 to 31 and watches a single matter over weeks.
The five steps
1. Gratitude
Thanks stand deliberately at the beginning, not at the end. Whoever starts with fault-finding finds faults and nothing else. Whoever starts with gratitude sees the day first as a gift – and sees what went crooked more clearly for it.
Ask concretely: what was good today? Not "life in general", but the conversation in the afternoon, the light on the way home, the sentence someone said to you.
2. Asking for light
One sentence is enough: Lord, show me this day through your eyes. This step is short, and it is the one that everything else hangs on. Without it, the Examen becomes self-examination – and self-examination is either too hard or too easy, never accurate.
3. Review
Now walk through the day in order: waking, morning, midday, afternoon, evening. Do not evaluate yet, just look.
Ignatius pays particular attention to the movements – where did you grow wide inside, where narrow? Where was there joy, where unrest? These movements are the raw material of the discernment of spirits.
Stop where something carries weight. An Examen that treats all sixteen hours equally misses the point.
4. Sorrow and forgiveness
Say what you are sorry for. Plainly, without embroidery and without settling scores. Then ask forgiveness – and accept it. Accepting is the part most people skip.
It is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the intimate feeling and relish of things. (Spiritual Exercises 2)
If this step regularly takes long and grows heavy, that is a sign – not of sin, but of scrupulosity. Ignatius knew it from his own experience and gave it its own rules (SE 345–351). His advice is unexpectedly sober: do not give in to the scruple, act against it.
5. Resolution
Finally, one single thing for tomorrow. One, not five. Small enough to be answerable tomorrow evening: not "be more patient", but "listen at dinner without interrupting".
Then an Our Father, and it is over.
Starting tonight
Find a fixed time – after dinner, before brushing your teeth, it does not matter which, as long as it is the same one. Sit where you will not fall asleep. Five minutes is enough.
The three most common beginner's mistakes:
- Too late. In bed, tiredness beats every resolution.
- Too long. Whoever starts with twenty minutes stops after nine days.
- Too solemn. The Examen is a conversation, not an exam. If it feels like an exam, step 1 or step 2 is missing.
The Examen and confession
Whoever prays the Examen over weeks eventually sees repetitions: the same impatience, the same withdrawal, the same place where things tear. That is the bridge to preparing for confession – not a list of individual cases, but the root underneath them.
The Catechism names the examination of conscience in the light of the Word of God (CCC 1454) as the way there. The Examen is the small, daily form of it.