I bought this little book at a sales price in a little bookshop in the city centre which I hope survives the lockdown and forced closure.

We’re told that St. Ignatius of Loyola believed that the prayer exercise called the ”Examen” should be the most important quarter-of-an-hour of a person’s day.

Since I’m not familiar with St. Ignatius’s original Examen, I don’t know whether the present book offers anything different or not, but we must presume it does.

I would first point out for those readers who are not religious that the author is a Catholic, and a Jesuit, which may explain a few things. (Not that I understand what it means to be a Jesuit.)

The author presents 34 different Examens that we can do when we wish.

The basics of the Examen are as follows: 1) Give thanksgiving 2) Ask for the Spirit (i.e. ask God to fill us with His Spirit) 3) Review the day ad recognize failures 4) Ask for forgiveness and healing 5) Pray about the next day.

One of my problems has been that I didn’t really know what was meant by “prayer”. I know two types of prayer 1) the child’s prayer we first learn that goes “Dear God, please look after Mum and Dad, etc, etc” and 2) Catherine Ponder’s affirmative prayers such as “Jesus Christ is healing me now in every way”, and that is that. But these types of prayer are clearly not the type needed here.

So I lacked the basic knowledge of what to do in each Examen, until, that is, I came to the final chapter “Important Ignatian Terms”, where we learn about praydreaming, which is prayerful daydreaming. (Though I found later that he does actually tell us about praydreamiing near the beginning of the book, I just didn’t really notice it.)

This chapter should not have been the last, but the first chapter!

So, I would advise you when reading the book to start with this last chapter which will clarify a few things.

Here is a précis of the traditional Ignatian Examen. First ask God to reveal to us all the gifts and graces he has given us this day. Second, request to be filled with God’s Spirit and be led by Him in this time. Third, review our day. Fourth. Ask forgiveness from God when we find moments when we were not fully the person we’re called to be. Fifth. We resolve to be the kind of person God is calling us to be tomorrow.
When attempting to do the various Examens, I was hindered by the fact that I apparently don’t lead a normal life, a life like most people; I don’t have many relationships and see very few people; I don’t often feel the need to forgive people for my wrongdoings, since I don’t feel I have many wrongdoings. And also when I asked God to show me this or that as required by the Eksamen, He generally didn’t.

Also, I didn’t know what the author meant by ”spiritually free” or “spiritually unfree”, which terms were not adequately clarified (that I noticed) until the final chapter, as mentioned above.

I believe in God (and know that I am part of God) but am not religious, so the book seemed overly religious to me.

My days are very similar to each other and also it was difficult/impossible to recall my various emotions throughout the day.

Though I can’t say I got much out of the book, I did find it somewhat inspiring though I would need to re-read it to attempt to get anything of consequence out of it. ( )

An eye opening introduction to the Jesuit Examen. A way to keep emotional balance, awareness of thoughts and the presence of God through the day. A lifeline. ( )