Prayerful daily review guided by Holy Spirit brings us closer to God

Published: November 4, 2017

By Judy Hoelzeman
St. Edward Church, Little Rock

Part of the rich tradition of the Catholic Church is to look back on our day’s activities to remember how well we responded to God’s call that day. St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) wrote his examen in about 1524 as part of his well-known spiritual exercises. It is a simple way to do a daily review. The Ignatian examen has five parts:

• Place yourself in God’s presence and give thanks for all the ways God has blessed you today;
• Ask for the Holy Spirit to lead you and help you be honest in your soul-searching;
• Review and recognize failures, areas where you wish you’d done better and recall painful moments when you drew away from God;
• Ask for forgiveness and healing for any harm, then pray to get over it and move on; and
• Pray about the next day. Imagine what you’ll be doing tomorrow and ask for help, especially with difficult moments you anticipate. Resolve to cooperate and trust in God’s guidance.

A second example of reviewing the day is called night prayer to the Holy Trinity. It works in three steps:

• Review the day just completed. Call to mind the best parts of the day — accomplishments, pleasant surprises or milestones. Pray: “Thank you, Father, for ...”
• Review the day. Call to mind times you failed in some way toward others or were hurt by words or actions of others toward you. Pray: “Jesus forgive me for …” and “Jesus, heal me from …”
• Look ahead to tomorrow, to whatever it is that most occupies your thoughts as you get ready for sleep. Pray: “Holy Spirit, be with me, give me courage, inspire me, give me wisdom as I prepare to …” This prayer is ideal for couples and could even be simplified for children.

It is not necessary to use a particular formula at all. Questions like this may serve the same purpose: For what moment today am I most grateful? For what moment am I least grateful? When did I feel most alive today? When did I feel life draining out of me?

When did I give and receive the most love today? When did I give and receive the least love? Part of the function of a daily review is to try to recognize your feelings (fear, anger, jealousy, joy, pride, gratitude) and the motives for your actions. These questions seem to help with that.

People familiar with 12-step programs like AA and Alanon will notice that the daily review is similar to the practice of the 10th step, which reads: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” Practicing this step helps us let go of the unnecessary burdens of guilt quickly.

With continued daily review, we form the habit of finding God in all things — in what we feel, think and do and in interactions with family, friends and co-workers. We often forget that God is present in every part of human experience.

Father James Martin, S.J., said of the examen, “Each moment offers a window to where God has been in your day.”

The primary motive of a daily review is to grow closer to God and to know God’s will. And a welcome byproduct of the practice might be good, sound sleep.

This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic November 4, 2017. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.