PRAYER 101

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N IGHT I PONDER IN MY HEART’ PRAYING THE DAILY EXAMEN A ‘

FATHER BRIAN MELDRUM was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2021. Before attending Sacred Heart Major Seminary, he was a music minister and theater director and member of St. Thecla Parish in Clinton Township. He is currently studying sacred Scripture at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

ALTHOUGH WE MIGHT NOT EXPECT A HOPEFUL MESSAGE FROM A BIBLICAL BOOK ENTITLED LAMENTATIONS,

WE READ: “THE LORD’S ACTS OF MERCY ARE NOT EXHAUSTED, HIS COMPASSION IS NOT SPENT; THEY ARE RENEWED EACH MORNING — GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS!” (LAM 3:22–23) EACH DAY, WITH BOTH BLESSINGS AND CHALLENGES, IS GOD’S GIFT; YET, THE NIGHT OFTEN BECOMES THE TIME TO REVIEW THE DAY WE HAD AND TO LOOK FORWARD IN HOPE TO THE NEXT. AFTER OUR WORKDAY IS DONE, WHEN THE CELL PHONE IS CHARGING, PERHAPS WHEN THE KIDS ARE ASLEEP, AND TOMORROW’S LUNCHES ARE MADE, WHAT BETTER GIFT CAN WE GIVE GOD THAN OUR LAST WAKING MOMENTS AT DAY’S END.

The daily task of recalling our day with gratitude is encouraged by Scripture and the saints. Psalm 63:7 reads, “I think of you upon my bed, I remember you through the watches of the night.” St. John Henry Newman gives this prayer for our day: “Lord, support us all the day long … until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, in your mercy, you give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.” Even God, hard at work — day in and day out — in Genesis, on the sixth day looked at everything he had made and saw that it was very good. Then, Genesis tells us “evening came, and morning followed.” (Gn 1:31)

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Jesuits, gave many gifts to the Church, especially a practice of examining our day. This “examen” can be prayed any time (Jesuits continue Ignatius’s tradition and pray it twice daily), but for most of us, night will probably be the time we can pray it best. An important aspect when we begin to pray the examen is to find a quiet time and a distraction-free place. Since we review our day and evaluate where we accepted God’s grace or rejected it, the daily examen can prepare us for confession with a priest. As we formulate resolutions to act with virtue when we are tempted with vice, the examen can ready us for the spiritual challenges that the new day is bound to bring.

For the examen to bear fruit in our spiritual lives, progress is more important than process; nevertheless, Ignatius provides steps for praying the examen to assist us toward our spiritual life’s goal: to see God’s grace at work in everything; to cooperate readily with that grace; to imitate constantly Jesus’s goodness; and to follow and to serve Christ the King (I am most grateful to Fathers John Michael McDermott, Cyril Whitaker and Peter Ryan, Jesuit priests and faculty members at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, for their insights on the examen throughout this article).

A DAILY EXAMEN

(BEFORE RETIRING, OR SUITABLE TO ANOTHER TIME OF DAY)

LOOKING AT OR HOLDING ONTO A CRUCIFIX, CONSIDER JESUS’ FIVE WOUNDS AS YOU PRAY. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE IN GOD’S PRESENCE. CONSIDER HOW JESUS LOOKS AT YOU. THEN PRACTICE THE FOLLOWING STEPS:

THANKSGIVING.

Begin with gratitude: “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7)

Thank God for the infinite goodness shown to you in particular graces today. Spend ample time giving thanks. Gratitude opens you to receive more. The Father delights to give you everything you need — that is why he gave you Jesus. Gratitude makes you even more receptive to God’s gifts.

KNOWLEDGE.

Ask God for light to recognize your failings. Jesus says that the Spirit of truth “will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” (Jn 16:13)

Be honest with God, who knows your weaknesses. Ask for God’s grace to recognize everything in you that does not lead to him. It is never easy to see your faults in the light of God’s love; yet God’s light “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:5)

RECOLLECTION.

Review your entire day: hour by hour, task by task or in larger segments. Examine your thoughts, words and actions.

Ask yourself, “When did I accept God’s grace and when did I reject it? When did I choose God’s will or when did I prefer my own? How did I grow in faith, hope and charity, or when did I experience doubt, despair or selfishness?

Psalm 139:2-4 says, O God, “You know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. You sift through my travels and my rest; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you know it all.”

CONTRITION.

Make an act of contrition. Express your sorrow for sins. Pray for perfect contrition: sorrow for sin solely for having offended God, who is love, mercy and goodness itself.

Remember the tax collector who “stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’” (Lk 18:13)

RESOLUTION.

Ask for God’s grace that tomorrow you might unite yourself more closely to him. Make concrete resolutions. “When I am tempted toward this, I will respond with that. When I doubt, I will make an act of faith. When I despair, I will renew my hope. When I am tempted to love only myself, I will make a gift of myself to God and others.”

Pray the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says, “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Mt 6:6)