Five-step Daily Examen
This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced and taught in the 1500s. He invited us to find God in all things - which means paying careful attention to how the Spirit is moving in each moment of our daily lives. We have to take a magnifying glass to the seemingly ordinary, seeking to encounter the Divine.
Many versions are used by the Society of Jesus or Jesuits (founded by St Ignatius of Loyola). This is a simple version that can be practised at the end of each day before you go to sleep.
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
Sit quietly and go inwardly to a place of peace.
Practising a meditation or mindfulness exercise may be helpful to centre mind and heart.
Picture God’s Holy Spirit being present with you.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
Replay the events of the day in your mind… people you met, things that happened, sites you saw… interactions with those you love… moments of light and life.
Review the day with gratitude.
Thank God.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
Think back over your day, noting the joys and delights, moments of irritation or perhaps sadness.
Was there something that particularly touched you? Moved your spirit in some way?
4. Where did God show up? Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
Sit with that moment … relive it… notice the feelings and thoughts.
Was God trying to say something to you? An insight?
Give thanks.
5. Look toward tomorrow.
Think about what’s on the agenda for tomorrow.
What opportunities might tomorrow hold?
Pray for awareness … that you will notice God showing up … and for wisdom in being able to appreciate and express love.
“God comes to us disguised as our life” Fr Richard Rohr.
Why didn’t someone tell me that earlier—that this life is the raw material that I need to take seriously?
Every day, what’s right in front of me is the agenda. And even more, the natural world all around us has all the lessons that we need for life, love, death, and salvation. Really! Just look and listen, and note how Jesus himself seems to have looked and listened to lilies, birds, hens, sheep, “red sky in the morning,” green and dry wood, moth and worm, etc.
You can see how merely believing doctrines and practicing rituals is very often a clever diversionary tactic to avoid my actual life—to avoid the agenda that is right in front of me every day, which is always messy, always muddy, always mundane, always ordinary—and all around me.
From Simple Faith by Margaret Silf:
I was once sitting in a little park in the small town of Loyola in Spain. Behind me was the imposing basilica of St. Ignatius, who was born there. Its edifice at that time was covered in scaffolding and under renovation. In front of me was a small kiosk selling newspapers, chocolate, and other small items.
A man came along with his small daughter and their dog. The man bought a newspaper for himself and a little container of soap bubbles for his daughter to play with. They sat down beside me. The man was engrossed in his newspaper. The little girl was delightedly blowing bubbles, clearly entranced by the magical coloured globe that each bubble formed as it caught the sunlight.
The dog jumped up after every bubble and tried to catch it, but as soon as he seized the bubble with his snout, the bubble burst. I asked myself, “Which is teaching me more about the kingdom of God—the mighty basilica with all its scaffolding or this little girl’s joy at the beauty of the world reflected in her bubbles?” The little dog was a reminder that as soon as we try to take hold of the mystery and pin it down into our own categories, words, and meanings, we destroy it.
“Which is teaching me more about the kingdom of God - the mighty basilica with all its scaffolding or the little girl’s joy at the beauty of the world reflected in her bubbles?”
– Margaret Silf
