The Five-Step Ignatian Examen

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St. Ignatius of Loyola called the daily Examen the one prayer he would not let his Jesuits skip, even on the busiest days. Five steps, fifteen minutes, in the evening before sleep. It is the most widely recommended single prayer practice in Catholic spirituality.

What the Examen is

The Examen is the central daily prayer of the Spiritual Exercises, the four-week retreat St. Ignatius wrote in the 1520s as a method of spiritual discernment. Unlike most prayers of the medieval period, which focused on contemplation of fixed mysteries, the Examen is a prayer of attention to your own actual life — what happened today, what stirred in you, what you noticed and what you missed.

The premise is simple: God is at work in the events of your day, but most of us miss it because we never look. The Examen is the looking.

The five steps

1. Become aware of God's presence

Settle. Two or three slow breaths. Recall that God has been with you through every moment of the day — not as an observer, but as the one in whom you live and move and have your being. Ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to see the day as God sees it. This is not pious throat-clearing; it is a real request, and it shapes everything that follows.

2. Review the day with gratitude

Walk through the day from waking to now. Pay attention to the gifts — especially the small ones, which we tend to miss. A good cup of coffee. A kind word from a stranger. A moment of clarity in a meeting. The fact that you arrived home safely. Thank God for them by name. Ignatius believed gratitude is the foundation of all spiritual progress; he made this step second precisely because most people skip it.

3. Pay attention to your emotions

Now look at the feelings of the day. Where did you feel energy, peace, joy, hope — what Ignatius called "consolation"? Where did you feel resistance, anxiety, frustration, restlessness, sadness — what he called "desolation"? These movements of the spirit are not random. The Examen asks: what was the Holy Spirit saying through them?

4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it

Pick a moment — beautiful or difficult, joyful or hard. Bring it to God in prayer. Speak to him about it the way you would speak to a trusted friend. If the moment was one of consolation, give thanks. If it was one of desolation, ask for understanding. This is the moment of intimacy in the prayer.

5. Look toward tomorrow

Briefly. Ask God for the grace you most need for tomorrow — not for general "guidance," but for something concrete. The patience to make it through a particular meeting. The courage to have a conversation you've been avoiding. The discipline to keep the resolution you broke today. Close with the Our Father.

When and where to pray it

Ignatius prescribed it for the evening — ideally before sleep, when the day's events are still fresh. He also gave the Jesuits a midday version, which functions more as a check-in than a review. For most lay Catholics, an evening Examen of fifteen minutes, prayed in bed or in a quiet chair before sleep, is the form that survives the realities of family life.

The location matters less than the consistency. What kills the practice for most people is not lack of time — fifteen minutes is achievable on virtually any day — but lack of cue. Set a fixed time and a fixed posture. The same chair, the same minute on the clock, the same opening prayer. The body learns the prayer faster than the mind does.

Examen vs. examination of conscience

These are different prayers, often confused. The Examen looks at the whole texture of the day: where God was present, where you noticed, where you responded, where you resisted. It is a prayer of awareness and discernment, not primarily a moral inventory.

The examination of conscience for confession is specifically focused on identifying sins — the moral inventory that makes a valid sacramental confession possible. It is more comprehensive, more structured, and done less often (typically before each sacramental confession).

Both are part of a healthy spiritual life. The Examen is what you do every night; the examination of conscience is what you do before you walk into the confessional.

What changes if you do it daily

Two things, slowly. First, you start to notice the patterns of your interior life — the kinds of moments that consistently bring consolation, the kinds that consistently bring desolation. This is the raw material of discernment, the foundation of any major life decision in the Ignatian tradition.

Second, the gap between an event and your spiritual response to it shortens. People who pray the Examen for years find themselves recognizing in real time, during the day, what previously took an evening review to surface. This is the slow work of contemplation in action — what Ignatius hoped the prayer would produce.

Frequently asked

How long should the Examen take?

Fifteen minutes is the traditional figure. Some find ten enough; some find thirty natural. Daily practice matters more than duration.

When is the best time to pray the Examen?

Traditionally in the evening, before sleep. Ignatius also recommended a midday version. The point is regular reflection, not a particular hour.

Is the Ignatian Examen the same as the examination of conscience for confession?

No. The Examen is a daily prayer of awareness, gratitude, and discernment. The examination of conscience is a moral inventory for the sacrament. Both are valuable.

Do I need to be a Jesuit to pray the Examen?

No. The Examen is part of the Spiritual Exercises, which Ignatius designed for all Christians, lay and religious. It is widely prayed across Catholic spiritualities.

Continue reading: Examination of conscience · How to prepare for confession · The Act of Contrition