Introduction
God works in our life everyday. We should answer Him everyday too. God is always the first speaker. That is why in the General Examen of Conscience the man asks himself about the heard call God directs to him, where and how God’s love and His will appeared.
The General Examen of Conscience, according to St. Ignatius’s, consists of five points making the whole of that prayer.
- The thanksgiving to God.
- The request for the Holy Spirit’s illumination.
- The reflection on the events.
- The request for absolution.
- Taking God’s will on with confidence.
MyHabits.net is, first of all, a practical help to work on one’s habits and decisions. However, to help those who want to say the General Examen of Conscience, we introduce the prayer in the left column that can facilitate certain points of the General Examen of Conscience, and a comment with some explanation in the right column.
1 The thanksgiving to God.
The prayer
I worship you, Lord,
In the fullness of joy and thanksgiving,
Look upon a child’s manner,
Created in my by the Holy Spirit,
I lay my hope on you,
And I believe your words,
I praise you in the gift of faith,
You awake in me and multiply,
I praise you, Lord,
In the descent of the Holy Spirit into my heart,
That persuades me of love and freedom
You give through the mystery
Of your Cross and Resurrection.
2 The request for the Holy Spirit’s illumination.
The prayer
Jesus, passing me by
Somewhere in a near distance,
Cure me!
I cannot see, but I want to,
Make me, Lord, see,
Save me, Lord, from my false manner,
Show me your salvation,
Jesus, I want to see this day through your eyes.
Comment
The Holy Spirit knows what is the best for us, what makes us similar to Jesus Christ and shows His love in our life, and through our life – towards the other man.
While asking for the light, we decide to recognize our behavior, states of our soul, in which we are, and the path we are following.
There is a lot to discover in our soul. When we are in the presence of God, He gives us the grace of recognition of ourselves in truth. It is for not making false conclusions because of our own judgment or prompting of evil.
We want to see the day through Jesus’ eyes.
3 The reflection on the events.
The prayer
Lord,
You know I love you,
I belong to you,
And I am your possession,
Make my crooked paths
Straight,
Make my heart looking for you,
Cheerful again,
And let the peace
And justice come to it.
Meditate over the states of the soul that were with you today.
Were the states of your soul connected with negligence of answering God’s actions or the consequence of faithful cooperation with Him?
What feelings appeared inside of you?
What work did God do in us?
What was God expecting from us?
The point is to see the way we are faithful to God, how we enter the path of unfaithfulness, and how we are returned from it by God’s actions, but not for a quick judgment of ourselves and our actions according to a schedule: it was good, it was bad.
At the end, if we were faithful to the grace, we thank God, if not – we ask for forgiveness.
Spare few minutes for considering the present day.
4 The request for forgiveness.
The prayer
I had been calling you, Lord,
Through the darkness of the night,
And you heard my voice,
I am here asking:
Show me your mercy,
Against my ignorance
And the lack of knowledge of you.
This part of the General Examen of Conscience is the prayer of a repentant heart.
If we have noticed our negligence of something good in the events, actions or conversations of the previous part, we should apologize Lord for rejecting His love and grace.
Let’s apologize for the lack of trust towards the unlimited love of the Father, the lack of gratefulness towards the redemptive love of the Son, the lack of fidelity towards sanctifying actions of the Holy Spirit.
5 Taking God’s will on with confidence.
The prayer
The Holy Spirit, the true love,
Lead us with your love,
Let your wisdom send us
Where is the lack of your love,
Make us the witnesses of your peace,
Let us trust you,
Give us faith and strength,
And send us where you want.
Taking God’s will with confidence finishes the everyday Examen of Conscience.
In the previous points our theme was recent past. Now what we should do is concentrate on the nearest future that God, our Father, had planned and prepared ages ago, and Jesus Christ announced as near or even present “kingdom of God”.
St. Ignatius advises making purposes of improvement with the help of God’s grace. However, more important is that the purpose refers to what misses from our side, e.g. a personal prayer, meditation on the Holy Scripture, conversations with our kin, including our professional matters into the salvation plan etc.
Comment
Every time we thank, we make the incoming of the internal consolation, joy and peace closer.
Recall good words, gestures, actions, what you heard or saw today. When we look at all works of creation, there is a great gratefulness for God awaken in us, because everything we have and see comes from Him.
In the manner of thanksgiving we show our humility towards God and Creator. Living in gratefulness for God for everything, we accept the Holy Spirit’s leading, we do not give any chance for any temptations to come through our chaotic senses and we do not neglect the good given us.
Spare few moments for thanksgiving.