A Personal Examen
try me, O GOD, and seek the ground of my heart
Lately I have tried to maintain a habit of structured self-examination and confession before bed. The Ignatian examen, at least in its popular form, has never quite been enough for me; fortunately, The Priest’s Book of Private Devotions has some fine examples that served as an inspiration and model for what follows. This examen aims to strike the right balance between concise and comprehensive, and I hope others find it useful.
᛭ IN the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
TRY me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart; prove me and examine my thoughts.1
O HOLY Spirit, enlighten my understanding, and show me wherein I have this day sinned against God, against my neighbor, against myself. Grant me fully to know my sins, shortcomings, and negligences, that I may confess them with true sorrow and contrition of heart.
❦ Here inquire of oneself as follows.
❧ Have I offered sufficient gratitude to God and to others for all the gifts of this day?
❧ Have I kept, fitly and fully and without wandering of mind, the day’s offices of prayer and devotion?
❧ Have I kept God in continual remembrance and reverenced his image in all whom I have met this day?
❧ Have I shown patience, meekness, and justice in all my dealings with others?
❧ Have I refrained from all words that are idle, false, or unbecoming?
❧ Have I failed in any courtesy or service of love which presented itself to me?
❧ Have I faced the trials of the day with courage and diligence?
❧ Have I kept my body in chastity and moderation of appetites?
❧ Have I made good and holy use of my time?
❧ Have I nursed in my soul any anger, resentment, or envy against another?
❧ Have I harbored either prideful thoughts or feelings of self-pity?
❧ Have I allowed any worldly desire to take root in me?
❧ Have I sought the guidance of divine Wisdom in all my affairs?
❧ Should it please God to summon my soul to him this night, would my heart be at ease?
I IMPLORE the mercy of thy Majesty, that it may please thee to give to me, thy servant, pardon of my sins, that, being delivered from all the bonds of the enemy, I may cleave to thy commandments with my whole heart, and evermore love thee alone, with all my strength, and one day be counted worthy to attain to the sight of thy blessedness. Amen.2
MY God, do not abandon me, though I have done nothing good in thy sight, but because thou art compassionate, grant me the power to make a beginning. Amen.3
Psalm 139:23 (TCB)
This prayer is collected in J. Manning Potts’s Prayers of the Middle Ages as being taken from an “Old Rheims Manuscript” of the ninth century.
This last collect is a version of the great penitential prayer of Abba Arsenios, preserved among the sayings of the Desert Fathers.