SELF EXAMEN

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
CONTEXT OF EXAMEN
 St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

…daily way of praying by

examining their lives so they
could better serve God
 The classic discipline for self examination is
the spiritual discipline of self-examen .

 It is about the awareness of self in our

relationship with God.
Motivation for Examen
 to have someone know everything about us
and love us anyway

 it opens us to the love we seek

 it offers us a safe place to see and name

those places where we are not like Christ, and

 it opens us up to deeper levels of spiritual

transformation.
Psalm 139: 23-24

"Search me. O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."
Paradox: We are inviting God to search us and
know us when in fact He already has searched
us and known us.

Real issue in self-examination: We are in fact

inviting God to help us know us.
 
Two basic truths
 Thefirst truth is the most basic affirmation of
our faith: God loves us

 The second truth is our human weakness and

brokenness in relation to God. We are
creatures damaged by the disorientation of
sin.
An important turning point in our spiritual life comes
when we acknowledge both truths and admit that

 We can neither earn God’s love nor

achieve our own security and
perfection.
 We turn to face God instead of self -

in a process known as "repentance."  

Resistance to Examen
 Our history of being shamed by our family or
church.

 Our sense of worth is so fragile or our

perfectionism is so pronounced that we are
not sure of facing the truth of our own
darkness without being completely unraveled.

 We would rather hide than face rejection.

Two basic forms of
self-examination
 
 Examen of conscience

 Examen of consciousness
Examen of Consciousness
 might be called daily review
 helps us to become more God conscious,

heightening our awareness that God is indeed

with us when we lie down to sleep, when we
wake up and in every moment in between. We
discover that we really are being led by the
hand of God.

 Helps us to experience the truth in Psalm

139:7-10.
Psalm 139: 7-10
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

       if I make my bed in the depths, you are

there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

       your right hand will hold me fast.

Questions
 How was God present with me
today?
 What promptings did I notice?
 How did I respond or not

respond?
 Through the examen of
consciousness, we become aware
of God’s presence with us and
begin to believe that nothing can
take us out of God’s presence.
Examen of Conscience
 asking God to bring to mind attitudes,
actions and moments when you fell short of
exhibiting the character of Christ or the fruit
of the Spirit.
 being willing to listen without defending and

to see without rationalizing.

 surrendering ourselves to the Spirit of God,

who reveals truth to us as we are able to bear

it.
 
3 Elements
i. What went wrong in a behavior or an action?

ii. Identifying our failure for what it is - this

naming process is classically known as
purgation.
a. the renunciation of all obvious sins and
other deliberate sins that may be
"normal" and "acceptable" in our culture
but are clearly not acceptable in God's
economy
 b. Awareness of unconscious sins
and omissions.

c. Dealing with the deep-seated

attitudes and inner orientations
out of which our behavior
patterns flow.
 
 Atevery level of the purgation
process we are led toward the
final and most transforming
aspect of the self-examination
process, which is confession.
iii. Confession

Confession is the discipline that results in our

ultimate freedom.

It is the endgame in the self-examination

process.
Confession requires

i. the willingness to acknowledge and

take responsibility not only for our sin
but also for the inner dynamics that
produced the sinful or negative
behaviours.
 ii.
us to say our failure out loud
ourselves, to God and to the
person(s) we have hurt and to
take steps to renounce it for
Christ's sake, even making
restitution if that is needed.
Confession, when practiced fully is
 Personal (between me and God)

 Interpersonal (with a trusted friend or

confessor, with the person I have hurt or
offended); and

 Corporate (in the context of worship in

community).
Awakeness to God’s forgiveness

Confession opens us to the

experience of being forgiven and
the freedom that comes on the
other side.
Confession leads to a sense of
cleansing and release.
Benefits of Self-examination
i. Healthy self-awareness

ii. Increasing truthfulness

iii. Greater compassion

iv. Identification with the

brokenness of others

v. Fruit of forgiveness
Prayer of Examen
 The three step process

1. begins with gratitude

2. moves to awareness of God’s
presence; and
3. ends with confession
Recollection

Memory is an art to be developed. Without it, life

just passes us by.

Examen means an accurate assessment of a

situation

1. The prayer of examen is a way of assessing

one’s life before God on a one’s life before God
on a regular basis.
 
2. Recollection is the root of the prayer of
examen.

3. It asks us to focus our recollection on a

narrow time span: the previous twenty-four
hours. It is one way to prevent days from
going by unexamined and unlived. 
4. Gratitude is the first step – looking for
those events, experiences, ideas, encounters,
and conversations that came as good gifts to
us and that provoked (or should have
provoked) gratitude.

5. Awareness of God is the second step –

looking for signs of God’s presence
6. Confession of failures is the final step.

7. Seek out Spiritual Friendship

PRACTICE OF SELF-EXAMEN:
30 minutes
PREPARATION
 Beforegoing to bed, or first thing
the next morning, look back over
the day just completed. Quiet
yourself and ask God’s Spirit to
guide you to truth and
understanding as you reflect on
the day.
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION

INVITATION
 Begin this practice by recognizing the
presence of God. Remind yourself of God’s
presence with you and His desire to be with
you. Consider praying for the Holy Spirit to
help you be attentive to God’s presence. To
become more focused, it might be helpful to
repeat a simple phrase during this time, like
“Be still and know that I am God” [Psalm
46:10].
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION
 INVITATION

REVIEW THE DAY

 Over-packed lives can rob us of the
opportunity to learn from the past, to see
how yesterday might inform today.

 “Where did the time go?!” we ask ourselves,

often struggling to remember what we did
just a week ago. Here we can benefit again
from taking time to look back over the past
24 hours.
 By intentionally reviewing our interactions,
responses, feelings and intentions, we can
avoid letting days speed by. We can pause to
learn more about ourselves and about God’s
activity in our lives.
 Try to look back objectively as you review.
Rather than interpreting, justifying, or
rationalizing, the intent is to observe
and remember. Allow your mind to wander
the situations you’ve been in and to notice
details.
Begin with these questions:
 During the course of the day, when did I feel most

desolate? When did I feel farthest from God?

a. Describe the situation to God verbally or in
writing.
b. Then spend a few minutes dialoguing with God
about the situation and your role in it. Think
about what you did well, and about what you
did poorly. Consider what you might learn
from the situation.
Ask these questions:
During the course of the day, when did I feel the
most consolation? When did I feel closest to God?
a. Describe the situation to God verbally or in
writing.
b. Spend a few minutes dialoguing with God
about the situation and your role in it.
Think about what you did well, and about
what you did poorly. Consider what you
might learn from the situation.
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION
 INVITATION
 REVIEW THE DAY
GIVE THANKS
 Give thanks for the gift of another day and
the lessons your soul learned from the day,
as you prepare yourself for eternity.
Embrace the new day to come, knowing that
God is with you each step of the way— in
good times and bad.
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION
 INVITATION
 REVIEW THE DAY
 GIVE THANKS

CONFESS
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION
 INVITATION
 REVIEW THE DAY
 GIVE THANKS
 CONFESS

ASK FORGIVENESS
PRACTICE: 30 minutes
 PREPARATION
 INVITATION
 REVIEW THE DAY
 GIVE THANKS
 CONFESS
 ASK FORGIVENESS

SEEK OUT SPIRITUAL

FRIENDSHIP
 Consider sharing your experiences: allow
encouragement and insight from others to
influence you and cheer you on, and when
appropriate give the same, together striving
to be an ever-faithful “community of
solitudes”
 Examining An
Important Event
 Think back across your life—or the prior few
months. Ask God to guide you to select an
important event. The event can be either a
good or bad experience.
 Quietyourself and ask God’s Spirit to
guide you to truth and understanding
as you examine the event.
 Tell God about the event as you remember
it. You an do this verbally or in writing,
whichever is most comfortable for you.
 Onceyou’ve retold the event, ask
yourself a series of probing questions
about the event. Feel free to ask
whatever you feel led. Here are some
example questions to get you started:
 a. How do I feel about what happened?
 b. Am I pleased with how I responded to the situation?
 c. Does the situation still impact me now? If so,
how?
 d. Is there anything I need to confess to God and
myself?
 e. If I could re-live this situation, what would I do
differently?
 f. What did I do right in this situation?
 g. What can I learn about myself from this event?
 h. Does this event reveal things I need to work on?
How will I do that?
 i. God, what else do You want to say to me about this
 Confess anything you need to confess. Give
thanks for anything you need to give thanks
for. And ask God to give you the strength to
learn and grow from the experience