New guides on the Examen, examination of conscience and confession. https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/feed.xml 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z Michael Porwolhttps://lumenexamen.com/ https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/consolation-and-desolation.html 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

What Ignatius means by consolation and desolation, the rules that matter most, and what to do when desolation comes.

Ignatius calls consolation any interior movement that widens you towards God – joy, confidence, an increase of faith, hope and love. Desolation is the opposite: darkness, narrowness, unrest, a pull towards what is low (Spiritual Exercises 316–317). His most important rule about it is startlingly practical: in desolation, make no change (SE 318). Decisions are made when it is light. https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/scrupulosity.html 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

When the examination of conscience will not stop: the signs, the rules of St Ignatius, practical help, and where the line to illness runs.

Scrupulosity is the recurring fear of having sinned where there is no sin — or that a confession was invalid. It is not a delicate conscience but a wounded one, and it grows worse the more you give in to it. Ignatius knew it from his own experience and gives an unexpectedly sober rule: do not give in to the scruple, act against it (Spiritual Exercises 345–351). The way out runs through a steady confessor, not through more checking. https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/examination-of-conscience.html 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

What the examination of conscience is, how to make it daily, which questions help, and how it differs from preparing for confession.

The examination of conscience is a calm look at your own day in God's light: where did I answer love, and where did I not? It has two forms – the daily one, which belongs to prayer and also sees the good, and the one before confession, which looks specifically for what should be named. The Catechism recommends making it in the light of the Word of God (CCC 1454). It is a way of self-knowledge, not brooding. https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/daily-examen.html 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

What the Ignatian Daily Examen is, how the five steps work, and how to pray it tonight for the first time.

The Examen is a prayer of about fifteen minutes in which you look back over your day and ask: where was God today, and how did I answer? Ignatius of Loyola sets it out in the Spiritual Exercises (SE 43) in five steps – gratitude, asking for light, review, sorrow, resolution. It is not a report card and not a list of faults, but a conversation with a God who already knows you. https://lumenexamen.com/en/knowledge/preparing-for-confession.html 2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

How confession works step by step, what to say at the beginning, how contrition works, and how to prepare in twenty minutes.

Three things make up your preparation: examination of conscience, contrition, and the resolution to do differently. In the confessional you begin with the sign of the cross and a sentence such as "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been … since my last confession." You name what weighs on you, listen, make an act of contrition and receive absolution. Twenty quiet minutes beforehand are enough. If you do not know how it goes, say exactly that – it is an ordinary opening, not an exception.