I just ran across a very good article on the daily Examen by Phyllis Zagano. There are many brief explanations of the Examen. This goes into some detail about it. A sample:
This small prayer, the Examen of Consciousness, is the heart of the spirituality developed by St. Ignatius Loyola and his followers. If practiced once or twice daily, it will help move you closer to the heart of Christ in all your thoughts and deeds. The point of it is to find the sources of unfreedom in your life—old habits, people, situations, conditions—that lead you to make cramped choices away from what would be God’s will.
The more we notice how we can change and move toward God like flowers to the sun, the freer we become. As God continually labors within us to make us more like His Son, we can either cooperate with his unfolding creation or freely choose not to. The choice is ours, and, like the prophets, Ignatius reminds us to “Choose life!”
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