The Examen Prayer: Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today

I have read about Ignatius' prayer of examen by a couple other great authors, but this one really clicked with me. The goal is transformation.

An underlying methodology, or series of practices, was presented to us by Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V. in his first book, "The Discernment of Spirits." We could call them the "tools of the trade," indispensable for discernment. We learned about the necessity of our own "awareness," "understanding," and "action." We were shown how to use and live Saint Ignatius' fourteen Rules for Discernment. This was all prefaced by the premise quoted by Father Gallagher from the work of Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J., in "Abandonment to Divine Providence," II, 1. Here he told us "All creatures live in the hands of God.... There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or some duty, and all that takes place within us, around us and through us both includes and hides his activity. Yet, because it is invisible, we are always taken by surprise and do not recognize his operation until it has passed by us. If we could lift the veil and if we watched with vigilant attention, God would endlessly reveal himself to us and we should see and rejoice in his active presence in all that befalls us. At every event we should exclaim: "It is the Lord!" (Jn 21:7). Nothing could happen to us without our accepting it as a gift from God."To begin to "lift the veil," which can also be said to "dis"-cover, we need "awareness" and "understanding." Only then can we take appropriate "action." The fact that Father Gallagher uses this book to present us with simply "one" of the "practices" in the discernment process, underlines its importance. It's called "The Examen Prayer," or simply an Examen. Saint Ignatius of Loyola (and many other saints after him) recommended that we become more "aware" with an "Examen." An examen is not an examination of conscience, but rather a general analysis or survey of our day and done at least once a day. We look over our day, its events, persons and circumstances and allow them to pop to the surface of our mind, permitting us to understand them. Our feelings can help indicate what God desires for us in our life. We notice our reactions during meetings, encounters with others, work, spending time with kids, doing volunteer work, praying--whatever! Do we feel joyful, drawn to God, full of faith and hope? Or, do we feel sad, depressed, a sense that God is far away? Our feelings are an indication of whether we are moving towards or away from God. Our feelings are the "tip of the iceberg," whereby we can search deeper. Once we notice whether our feelings (which might have led to actions) are moving us towards God or away from Him, we can identify real opportunities offered by the Lord to "dis"-cover Him or as ones in which we did not recognize Him. Over time, we begin to see patterns and reoccurrences of things that then help us to "dis"-cover our greatest weakness. We recognize this as God calling us to a deeper conversion. We then use these to make the necessary corrections. We can therefore make decisions about our life that bring us to feel drawn to fuller faith, greater hope, and joy-filled peace. We can see this accomplishing what Saint Ignatius taught, "easing and taking away all obstacles, so that the person (we) may go forward in doing good." The "Examen" sharpens our awareness and understanding to better succeed in this.The biggest challenge I think we all face is incorporating or firmly integrating the Examen into daily lives. This book will go a long way to help us face that challenge.

Our church book club choose this book to read. It was by recommended to us by our priest. This book explains in detail a method of prayer developed by St. Ignatius. If you are wanting to have a better relationship with God this is a good book for you.

Fr. Timothy Gallagher writes in a way that is relatable and easy to understand. It is not heady at all. I highly recommend this book!

A very good book

This insightful and inspiring book gives practical tips and examples of how to pray the Examen Prayer, and to make it a daily practice. It has been useful to me as I can see progress even though I've only been praying the Prayer daily for a couple of months. The more you pray, the more you want to pray is what I've found.

The book arrived 2 days early and was fantastic

This is the second book that I have read by Fr. Gallagher. It is a renewed expert on Ignatian Spirituality. I have to honestly admit that the last book that I read of his was one of the deepest books that I have read and took some time to get through. Not this book.This book is a beautiful guide to an Ignatian form of prayer that Ignatius of Loyola suggested as a part of his spiritual exercises. Gallagher suggest that it is essential to understanding whether or not you are growing in your relationship with God. I had thought that Ignatian spirituality involved contemplation leading to action. Gallagher correctly suggest that it is contemplative in action. The intent of the examen is to help us see where God is in our life, and where we did not see God in our life. Gallagher gives us a very practical guide on this. Highly recommend!

I attended a retreat given by Fr. Tim Gallagher in 2008. The book is very helpful in the spiritual discipline of the examen prayer. I use An Outline Of The Examen on page 25 on a daily basis. I purchased this copy to pass along to a friend.

This is a book that every praying person should read. If you are interested in starting to pray, or even if you have been praying for some time, you will gain benefit from reading this book.I have read other books by this author and found them to be well researched and written and easy to read. I was interested in finding out about the Examen prayer so when I came across this book I knew it would be a comprehensive and instructive read.The author writes in a very personal way, which is like being involved in a conversation with a friend. He writes in an everyday language with lots of quotes and examples from the lives of modern day people.This book presents a practical way to learn about and practice the Examen prayer, or the examination of consciousness, as introduced by Saint Ignatius Loyola. Initially, we read about each of the five step and where they fit in the practice of the prayer as well as how to practice.We hear from the writings of Saint Ignatius as well as the experiences of many others who have been practicing this way. We get to read about what works for some and doesn’t work for others.I got a lot from reading this book. I started using the prayer form immediately and found it significantly uplifting. It is not restrictive in any way, the book, as well as the Saint Ignatius, allow for significant flexibility in making this work for the individual.The main benefit is that using this prayer form you can improve your relationship with God and spend more time recognising God’s presence and activity in your life.

I was introduced to this book at a Quiet Day, and immediately came home to order a copy for myself.. The Prayer of Examen sounds so simple, but it isn't and it is so helpful to find an author who not only explains it, but takes one through it step-by-step and gives actual examples. That leaves me to stick at it, day after day - but I can always go back to the book when I fail.

This is the fourth book from Father Gallagher I have read (in the order: The Discernment of Spirits, Spiritual Consolation, Discerning the Will of God).There is a typical footprint in Father Gallagher's presentation of Ignatian Spirituality that I particularly appreciate:he starts from the original texts of Saint Ignatius, explains them almost literally, comments them and then presents a variety of personal testimonies that people from different conditions have shared with him. The purpose of these stories is to cast further light on Saint Ignatius' teachings and show how they can incarnate in modern lives.I found that in this book the formula did not work as well as in the others I have read. The presentation of the examen is based on the text where Saint Ignatius briefly introduces the 5 steps of the examen (Spiritual Exercises 43) and on the account of a single day from his Spiritual Diary. In the other books, some personal testimonies were quite elaborated and highlighted different interesting aspects, so that they were cited across multiple chapters. Here most of the testimonies are quite simple and they are briefly mentioned in a single chapter. I do not think that they make a strong point, and I have probably forgot most of them soon after having read them.My practice of the examen prayer has been revived by this reading, and I thank Father Gallagher for this, but I was expecting more.I think that the book may be particularly indicated for those who are not familiar with the examen.Comment

Great book