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1765 Regina Begin the Thirty Days

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The Daily Examen

Five quiet minutes at the close of the day, in St Ignatius's five steps, with questions written for your own state of life.

I · What it is

The day, held up to God

The examen is a short daily prayer that St Ignatius of Loyola taught in the First Week of his Spiritual Exercises. Made at the close of the day, it is a few minutes in which you look back over the day in God's presence, thank Him for what He gave, see honestly where you answered Him and where you turned away, and take one step forward for tomorrow.

It is also the prayer of a woman who ponders. Of Our Lady at Bethlehem, St Luke writes:

But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:19, Douay-Rheims

The examen learns from that pondering: the events of one day, kept and turned over before God, so that nothing He gave is wasted and nothing that wounded is left to fester.

II · The five steps

St Ignatius's five points

Each step in the tool opens with St Ignatius's own words, from the 1914 English translation of Father Elder Mullan, S.J., and then explains it plainly.

  1. Give thanks. “The first Point is to give thanks to God our Lord for the benefits received.” Name three gifts from today, concretely, and keep one if you like.
  2. Ask for light. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the day as God saw it, with the old prayer Come, O Holy Ghost.
  3. Review the day. Hour by hour: thoughts, then words, then deeds. A few questions for your state of life light the way, different ones each night, so that over a week you meet them all.
  4. Ask forgiveness. Tell God you are sorry, plainly and without excuses, as a daughter to her Father, whose judgment is just and merciful, and pray the Act of Contrition from the Baltimore Catechism.
  5. Resolve. One thing for tomorrow, small enough to do. Tomorrow night the tool shows it back to you. Close with the Our Father and the Sub tuum praesidium.

III · For your state of life

Questions for your vocation

The Baltimore Catechism teaches that a good examination calls to mind “the particular duties of our state in life”. So the review asks the questions of the life you actually live. Tell the tool once which are yours, and every Regina tool will know:

  • Wife: love in deed and in tone, truthfulness, forgiveness, praying for him by name.
  • Mother: patience, steady correction, handing on the faith, entrusting each child to God.
  • Single: living the day as wholly God's, chastity, service, trust in His plan.
  • Widow: bringing grief to God, praying for her husband's soul, the work God still has for her.
  • Consecrated or discerning: an undivided heart, faithful prayer, silence, acting on the light already given.

Choose more than one if more than one is yours. Under every state run the same three: love of God, love of neighbour, and the interior life.

IV · What it keeps

Your nights, never your faults

The examen keeps, on your own device: the nights you examined (with a calendar and a streak that counts consecutive nights and nothing else), an optional one-word mark for the day, and an optional gift and resolution if you write them. The questions you pause over are never recorded. Nothing is sent to us unless you turn on Regina Key sync, which sends only a locked copy we cannot read.

You can print tonight's examen card, this month's record, or every question for every state of life. You can also choose an hour for your examen (when you open the tool after that hour, it tells you so; the examen does not send notifications), or add a nightly reminder with an alarm to your own calendar, using a file the tool makes on your device.

V · When the day was dark

Consolation and desolation

At the end of the review you may give the day one word: consolation, desolation, or neither. These are St Ignatius's words for the movements of the soul toward God and away from Him, and his counsel for desolation is to make no change to the good resolutions you made before it. The tool shows his rules in full in its library.

Spiritual desolation is not the same as depression or a mental-health crisis. If you feel hopeless, or think of harming yourself, call or text 988 now; if you are in danger, call 911. Each step of the examen, and the screens before and after it, has a quiet link to help, and the review carries a plain note for every woman: what is done to you is not your sin, and you do not have to stay in danger.

Questions

Is the examen the same as an examination of conscience before Confession?

No. The examen is a short nightly prayer over one day: thanks, light, review, sorrow and one resolution. Before Confession you examine your conscience over everything since your last confession, by the commandments, the precepts of the Church, the capital sins and the duties of your state in life. The examen keeps you ready for that; it does not replace it, and it is not the sacrament.

What happens to my streak if I miss a night?

The streak counts consecutive nights examined. Miss one and it begins again, and your longest run stays on the screen. Tonight never counts as missed while it is still open. If you made last night's examen without the app, you may log it, and that night counts.

Can I make the examen after midnight?

Yes. Until 4 a.m. the examen closes the day that has just ended, so a mother up with a baby at one in the morning examines the day she has actually lived.

Does anyone see what I write?

No one at 1765 Regina sees it. The examen keeps only the nights you examined, an optional one-word mark, and an optional gift and resolution, on your own device, and it never records your faults. Anyone who can open this browser on your device can read what you wrote, so if someone checks your phone, do not write here what you need to keep from them. Nothing is sent to 1765 Regina unless you turn on Regina Key sync, which sends only a locked copy that cannot be read.

Sources

  • St Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, translated from the autograph by Elder Mullan, S.J. (New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1914): the Method for Making the General Examen, the Particular Examen, and the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits. Public domain. Read it at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
  • A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 2 (the Baltimore Catechism, 1885): questions 192 to 194, the Act of Contrition and the Lord's Prayer. Public domain. Project Gutenberg.
  • The Raccolta, translated by Ambrose St John, 1910 edition: Come, O Holy Ghost (no. 41), Sub tuum praesidium (no. 184), and O Mary, conceived without sin (no. 249). Public domain. Internet Archive.
  • Holy Scripture in the Douay-Rheims translation, Challoner revision. drbo.org.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1779 (interiority and conscience), 1452, 1454, 1457 and 1458 (perfect contrition, examination of conscience, Confession before Communion, confessing everyday faults), 1465 (a judgment both just and merciful), 1857 (what makes a sin mortal), 2116, and 2180 and 2181 (Mass on Sundays and holy days, the Vigil Mass, serious reasons that excuse), summarized in our own words.

The guidance around each step and the nightly questions are written for 1765 Regina in our own words. The prayers are the Church's traditional prayers, each given with its source.

Further reading in the Library: Catholic Morning Routine for Mothers: A Real-Day Rule · What Is the Domestic Church? A Catholic Guide · How to Make a Catholic Home Altar