The Examen Prayer:Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today

by: Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V.

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Study Circle

As we begin this study circle on Examen Prayer…

Personal❏ Consider (if it is not already a regular practice) keeping a prayer journal. If

something strikes you as worthy of deeper prayer and reflection, write it in the journal. Journaling a few words/sentences about how God is acting in your life or about your own spiritual struggles will help you begin to see patterns and allow you to hear God better. This may feel awkward at first. Persevere!

❏ Spiritual reading takes commitment. Make a plan as to when and where you will complete the reading. A calendar has been provided. Use it to determine how you will accomplish the reading assignments. Consider your strengths and weaknesses. Can you attend better in the morning? Is it better for you to read the chapter all at once or break it up?

❏ You may want to read with a pencil or highlighter in hand. Don’t hesitate to mark up your book, underline phrases that strike you, or write thoughts/key words in the margin.

❏ If you missed reading a chapter, DO still attend your study circle session and resolve to catch up that week.

Study Circle Discussion:❏ DO make every effort to read the assigned chapter(s) before your team meets for

a study circle. Do not wait to read it together. This does not give enough time to process and ponder what you read.

❏ If you feel your response to a question is too personal to share in discussion, do not feel pressured to do so. Instead consider bringing it to deeper prayer and spiritual direction.

❏ Teams should not feel as if EVERY question must be discussed. If the discussion centers on 1 or 2 questions or even takes a different turn, allow the Holy Spirit to drive the discussion.

❏ Teams may or may not have a study circle session after each reading assignment. Some weeks are designated for integration activities, etc. That is okay. At the next study circle session, teams can discuss 2 or even 3 chapters of questions. Keep reading according to the calendar even if your team is not meeting on a given week.

❏ Teams may decide to rotate which member will lead the study circle discussions. This will build in personal accountability and generate greater engagement.

Foreword & Introduction (p. 9-24)

1. As I begin the reading of this book and engage in this study circle, what is my current knowledge of examen prayer?

2. What is my understanding of “discernment of spirits” (p. 10)? How might this discernment apply in daily life?

3. Perhaps I have attempted a kind of prayer or spiritual practice at different times in my life only to abandon it after some difficulty. Explain what Fr. Aschenbrenner might mean when he says, “Without enough genuine desire for a life of love with God, self-willed determination can never fit the examen to our daily lives. Only love and its burning desire, sheer grace from God, can evoke, direct, and develop our hard work of practice of examen into an effective lifestyle” (p. 10).

4. Consider Fr. Aschenbrenner’s description of how examen prayer invites the person into “the haunted house in the neighborhood of all our hearts” (p. 12). How do I understand this at the beginning of this journey?

5. What is the difference between what the secular culture might call leading a spontaneous lifestyle versus living a life in “the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit” (p. 13)?

6. Fr. Gallagher was struck by this sentence “Growth in relationship with God occurs through mutual self-revelation” (p. 19). What does this mean to me?

7. If “every authentic and enduring relationship of love necessitates, at times, the courage to love”, how might this apply to my prayer life (p. 22)?

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Chapter 1 - Discovering the Examen (p. 29-41)

1. Is there an area of my spiritual life where I, like Fr. Gallagher, feel “a distance between what I am saying to others and what I am actually experiencing” (p.33)?

2. What do I think it means (as in the several examples in this chapter) that examen prayer can “find” me?

3. On p. 33-34, Fr. Gallagher described attending a 2 ½ hour service of prayer and song as a turning point in his spiritual struggles when he felt particularly burdened and exhausted. What did he learn from that experience? How did it help him?

4. Fr. Gallgher wrote: “I had to face my own inability to resolve my struggle...I needed to let myself be helped. I needed to share openly with certain persons, people of competence and wisdom who knew what I was experiencing, and to allow myself to be led” (p. 34). Have I experienced this sense of inability to solve my own spiritual struggles? What can I do about this in prayer? How can the gift of regular spiritual direction available to me in Regnum Christi, help with this?

5. While I may claim it intellectually, does my heart believe that the gift of examen prayer “is a work of grace and not merely the fruit of human effort” (p. 35)? What makes this challenging to believe?

6. From what I have read so far, how are healing of woundedness and examen prayer linked?

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Chapter 2 - A Day with Ignatius (p. 42-53)

1. Reflect on your own personal prayer time. Is it or has it ever been marked by clarity, lucidity, and/or warmth? A sense that I really know God is here and is acting in my prayer? How does that awareness affect your prayer and subsequently your day?

2. Have I, like St. Ignatius, experienced this disparity of feeling deep spiritual consolations in one moment and stinging doubts and desolation the next? How did St. Ignatius respond? How do I tend to respond?

3. Consider the number of times, doubts resurfaced for St. Ignatius in just this one day related in the chapter. How did seemingly holy inspirations distract him? What made these doubts so subtle and tempting to believe? How do these kinds of doubts distract me? If St. Ignatius had not discerned these as assaults from the enemy, what might have been the outcome?

4. St. Ignatius discerned that his desire for greater poverty was clear, but it was his desire for a confirmation according to his “own satisfaction” that drove his doubts. Have I ever stayed caught in a cycle of never-ending discernment for similar reasons?

5. This chapter highlights how Ignatius lived in a desire for constant awareness of the movements of the heart to discern God’s stirrings. What are my honest thoughts to the question asked by the participant in Fr. Gallagher’s seminar - “Is it really possible to live this way?”

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Chapter 3 - First Step: Gratitude (p. 57-67)

1. Why does St. Ignatius choose gratitude as the first step of the practice of examen prayer? Why is gratitude considered the happiest and surest way to grow in love?

2. Why does St. Ignatius state that ingratitude is “the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins” (p. 59)?

3. Fr. Gallagher explains on p. 60 that in salvation history, “...the primary reality is always what God does. The people’s response is vital...but it is never the first reality.” Now read 1 John 4:19. Why is this an important realization not only in salvation history but in my own personal spiritual journey?

4. After reading the two examples of examen prayer (Jean and Tom), consider your day thus far. Go through the day chronologically and list concretely what you are grateful for.

5. Why is it so important not to rush past this first step of examen prayer?

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Chapter 4 - Second Step: Petition (p. 68-74)

1. How would I describe the role of human effort in examen prayer?2. What is petition? What is the goal of petition in examen prayer?3. Notice the locations & times of examen prayer in the examples provided. Where

and when could I plan to practice examen prayer?4. Consider the content of petition (step 2) in the three examples (Ellen, Rita, Bob).

How were they the same? How were they different? 5. What is the fruit of petition in examen prayer?

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Chapter 5 - Third Step: Review (p. 75-86)

1. What is the goal of review (3rd step) in examen prayer?2. How would I define or describe spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation?3. Choose 1 person’s story (Susan or Don). Answer the following questions that Fr.

Gallagher poses after their stories:a. What is different in Susan’s/Don’s life because she/he is making the examen?b. If Susan/Don continues making the faithful practice of examen, what might

happen?c. If Susan/Don do not continue in examen prayer, what might happen?d. What invitations to moral growth (or resolutions) did Susan/Don perceive in

the practice of this 3rd step of examen prayer?

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Chapter 6 - Fourth Step: Forgiveness (p. 87-94)

1. How does the practice of gratitude (step 1) significantly impact the practice of forgiveness (step 4)?

2. What is my relational image of God in both my thinking (intellect) and feeling (affective/emotion)?

3. What is the link between joy and forgiveness found in Luke 15 in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son? Is this how I approach the sacrament of Reconciliation? Why or why not?

4. Share my insights upon reading G. Herbert’s poem, Love. How does it illustrate aspects of examen prayer?

5. If I find myself drawing away from examen prayer, what are some possible causes?

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Chapter 7 - Fifth Step: Renewal (p. 95-109)

1. What does it mean that St. Ignatius “looks back in order to look forward” (p. 95 )?2. What is the goal or purpose of renewal (5th step) in examen prayer?3. Consider each of the 3 stories (Joan, Kevin, Elaine). Choose 1 and answer the

following questions:a. What difficulties/burdens/challenges is this person facing?b. When/where did this person practice examen prayer amidst the busyness of

his/her daily life?c. What insights did this person have?

d. What spiritual initiatives proposed by God’s grace did he/she decide to perform?

4. Spiritual initiatives are essentially personal resolutions. At times, resolutions may incite some fear - fear of failure/inability to complete due to forgetfulness or busyness. What advice and insight does Fr. Gallagher offer? (re-read p. 102)

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Chapter 8 - Flexibility (p. 103-109)

1. Must the 5 steps of examen prayer be followed chronologically every time one engages in it? What counsel does Fr. Gallagher offer?

2. Several times in this chapter, it mentions staying at a particular step until one’s heart “is satisfied” following St. Ignatius’s example (p. 105). What does this mean?

3. Fr. Gallagher discusses “creative fidelity” (p. 107). What does this mean?4. Have I begun to attempt examen prayer? If so, with what results? If not, what

might be keeping me from it?

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Chapter 9 - The General Setting of the Examen (p. 113-121)

1. How can spiritual direction assist us in the practice of examen prayer?2. How might examen prayer assist us in spiritual direction?3. What is the interplay or connection between examen prayer and other times of

regular formal prayer (ie. Mass, meditation on Scripture, etc)? Can I think of a concrete example?

4. Fr. Gallagher urges us to grow in “our human capacity to notice” (p. 118). In other words, to be very present to the present moments of our lives and observe. Have I begun to practice this intentional awareness? If so, with what results? If not, what seems to hinder me?

5. Reread Fr. Aschenbrenner’s description of examen in the last paragraph of this chapter (p. 121). What might I expect as I undertake the practice of examen prayer?

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Chapter 10 - The Specific Setting of Examen (p. 122-136)

1. Take a few minutes to ponder the quote by Simone Weil at the beginning of this chapter. Have I ever pictured God as a beggar for my love? What is my response to this?

2. Transitions refer to the ways we might begin and conclude our time of examen prayer each day. In beginning, St. Ignatius advises that we pause to consider “how God our Lord looks upon me” (p. 123). Many ideas are proposed on p. 124-125. What (image, verse, prayer or thought) will help me transition into examen prayer?

3. The Our Father was St. Ignatius’s suggestion of how to conclude examen prayer as a means to transition back to active life. Why might the Our Father be fruitful for this? What other options might I consider?

4. Where is the best place for me to pray the examen?5. How long should examen prayer last for me? 6. Have I ever used a journal in prayer before? Has or could my prayer of examen be

enriched by journaling?

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Chapter 11 - Examen and the Courage to Love (p. 139-147)

1. Fr. Gallagher quotes St. John of the Cross: “On this journey, we must always continue to walk if we are to arrive” (p. 142). How can I apply this to the practice of examen prayer and my spiritual life as a whole?

2. Praying the examen prayer will not always be easy or be a delight. At times it may even hurt due to my wounds of the heart. What consolation and insight does Fr. Gallagher offer for these times?

3. Consider the example shared about the man with the addiction that causes him great shame. How did examen prayer help him?

4. If I were to find myself stuck in a repeating pattern of painful examen, unable to share my shame or struggle with even my spiritual director, what hope can examen prayer offer?

5. How can examen prayer become “holy ground” (p. 143, 147)?

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Chapter 12 - Examen and Surrendering to Love (p. 148-156)

1. Why does God permit trials of spiritual desolation?2. How can examen prayer be a source of spiritual freedom (see example of woman

on p. 150-151)?3. At times examen prayer will be challenging when experiencing spiritual desolation.

How can knowing this in advance help me to persevere?4. Reflect on the beautiful words of St. John Henry Newman on p. 153. What insights

does the Holy Spirit prompt within me?5. Reread Cardinal Bernardin’s quotes about “letting go” and “emptying myself” (p.

153-154). How can examen prayer help me in the lifelong process of fully surrendering and emptying myself “so the Lord can really take over”?

6. Ponder the image of “each footprint of fidelity” (p. 140 & 155). How might this serve to inspire me?

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Chapter 13 - Examen and the Community (p. 159-168)

1. Explain how the practice of examen prayer can help me to respond rather than to react to the circumstances and situations of each day.

2. Sometimes many of us carry the impression that feelings and emotions are to be ignored at best or even considered unhelpful obstacles/useless at worst. How does the practice of examen prayer transform this false impression? How can our feelings and emotions actually help us to pray the examen whether or not they are positive in nature?

3. What are some of the many fruits of examen prayer? Which is most motivating to me?

4. How can my personal practice of examen prayer bless my family, parish, workplace and/or apostolate?

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Chapter 14 - The Examen and Choices (p. 169-176)

1. How can noting my thoughts and feelings experienced throughout the day serve as “data-collecting time” in prayer and spiritual direction (p. 170)? How would a prayer journal be an especially helpful tool in this endeavor?

2. Fr. Gallagher states that reviewing prayer journal entries over time can also be a helpful exercise in examen prayer. How so?

3. Our charism in Regnum Christi is both contemplative and missionary; that is to say it includes both dynamic prayer and action. It is easy to see at the conclusion of this study, the spiritual fruit available through examen prayer. But examen prayer

also “contributes so much to discernment of our entire apostolic life” (p. 171). Explain how this practice may help me better live my apostolic charism.

4. Fr. Gallagher explained that examen prayer brings progressive clarification, that what may be murky or unclear in one or two prayer periods may emerge clearly after some days, weeks, or months. Some have described this as how God helps them “connect the dots” or even how “the various seemingly random threads on the back create the beautiful tapestry on the front”. Have I begun to practice examen prayer? If so, do I have a fruit to share (no matter how big or small) of how these dots were connected by God for me in some matter?

5. What questions do I still have about examen prayer? If I have not yet begun to attempt examen prayer, what is holding me back?

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