Season 2. Ep 46. The Examen Prayer

This episode of Physically Spiritual explores the forgotten secret to grow in the spiritual life, the Examen Prayer.

Video Version

Audio Version

Timestamps

2:45 What is the Examen?

5:00 St. Ignatius’ General Examen

9:00 How Make an Examen

11:00 3 Mistakes to Avoid

23:30Deliverance & Discernment of Spirits During Examen

Notes

“Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the "today" of God is written.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2705. - https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P9L.HTM

Particular Examen - https://ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/exercises/exercises.xii.ii.html

“METHOD FOR MAKING THE GENERAL EXAMEN

It contains in it five Points.

First Point. The first Point is to give thanks to God our Lord for the benefits received.

Second Point. The second, to ask grace to know our sins and cast them out.

Third Point. The third, to ask account of our soul from the hour that we rose up to the present Examen, hour by hour, or period by period: and first as to thoughts, and then as to words, and then as to acts, in the same order as was mentioned in the Particular Examen.

Fourth Point. The fourth, to ask pardon of God our Lord for the faults.

Fifth Point. The fifth, to purpose amendment with His grace.

Our Father.” St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, Week 1 -

https://ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/exercises/exercises.xii.iii.html

Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMI | The Examen Prayer (8 Episode Series) - https://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/fr-timothy-gallagher-the-examen-prayer/

“In terms of the Examen then, whatever increases our human capacity to notice experience around and within us simultaneously increases our capacity to notice, with the aid of God’s grace, our spiritual experience as well.” Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV, The Examen Prayer, Chapter 9. - https://www.frtimothygallagher.org/product-page/the-examen-prayer-ignatian-wisdom-for-our-lives-today

“As our capacity to notice interior and exterior human experience grows, we are correspondingly prepared to notice specifically spiritual experience as well.” Ibid.

“Third Addition. The third: A step or two before the place where I have to contemplate or meditate, I will put myself standing for the space of an Our Father, my intellect raised on high, considering how God our Lord is looking at me, etc.; and will make an act of reverence or humility.” St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, Week 1 - https://ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/exercises/exercises.xii.x.html

Brother Lawrence | The Practice of the Presence of God - https://ccel.org/ccel/lawrence/practice/practice