By Steve Givens
More Than a Review of the Day … It’s Prayer
When I was a young married man, very unsure of myself in many ways, I would often have trouble falling asleep because I had too much on my mind— too many worries and concerns and doubts. I began a habit back then of reviewing my day, hour by hour and encounter by encounter, searching for what was good and healthy in my life and what was troubling and unsettling. Many years later I realized that, without knowing its name, I had been praying a prayer commonly known as the “Examen,” or the examination of consciousness.
This way of daily reflective prayer lies at the heart of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, and it remains the central exercise in a spirituality that is focused on “finding God in all things.” So it’s not just another kind of prayer but, rather, a way of becoming more prayerful, more aware of and open to God throughout our days.
It’s for this reason that the Examen has become an important daily prayer practice for so many people. It’s a prayer that forces us to slow down and pay attention, a prayer that ends with that most powerful of prayers: “Thank you.” It’s a prayer that St. Ignatius says we should pray every day, even if we have time for no other prayer.
Normally prayed near the end of the day, the Examen is an opportunity, before the day slips away from us, to recall (or perhaps to see for the first time) where we encountered God. For when we do not stop and do this, we miss the blessings. We operate on autopilot and we just don’t see. We just don’t know. But when we stop and pay attention, we can begin to live lives of gratitude. For we can’t say “thank you” for something we don’t recognize as gift.
The Steps
The exact language of the steps of the prayer varies a little between interpretations, but in its simplest form, the Examen includes some version of these five steps, and it can be done in as little as five or ten minutes.
- Be in God’s presence: Relax and be still. Let the tensions of the day slip away. Ask for God’s help in looking at your day with honesty.
- Review your day: Hour by hour, notice your blessings and challenges. See your day as you imagine God sees it. Notice your interactions and opportunities, and don’t forget the ordinary blessings and miracles of modern life.
- Pay attention to your emotions: Savor a few of these moments and pray from them. Positive or negative, both hold meaning. Look for those things that drew you closer to or further away from God.
- Speak to God: Reflect on what has happened during your day and talk to God about what you have learned in your reflection. Ask God to show you what is most important. Rejoice in the times you were drawn closer to God. Ask forgiveness for the times you resisted God’s presence and action. Thank God for the awareness of it all.
- Look to tomorrow: Ask God to be a bigger part of your day tomorrow. Ask for the grace you need to be more aware and more grateful. Be practical and specific. Be open to change.
The Examen very well may be the most important prayer of our lives or perhaps the prayer that begets all other forms of prayer.
It is our “work,” as the poet Mary Oliver writes in her poem “The Messenger”:
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
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Editor’s note: This is the FIRST article in a series on PRAYER by Steve Givens, a spiritual director in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
