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Many different saints, such as St. Ignatius Loyola, suggest making a nightly examen The Jesuits still use St. Ignatius’s version to this day.
St. Francis de Sales provides his own formula for the nightly examen in his Introduction to the Devout Life.
While St. Francis de Sales was not a Jesuit, he was formed by Jesuits in his schooling and so his examen is essentially the same, with some slight variations.
Nightly examen
As to the examination of conscience, which we all should make before going to bed, you know the rules:
1
Give thanks to God
Thank God for having preserved you through the day past.
2
Examine your day
Examine how you have conducted yourself through the day, in order to recall where and with whom you have been, and what you have done.
3
Sift through the good and bad
If you have done anything good, offer thanks to God; if you have done amiss in thought, word, or deed, ask forgiveness of His Divine Majesty, resolving to confess the fault when opportunity offers, and to be diligent in doing better.
4
Commend yourself to God
Then commend your body and soul, the Church, your relations and friends, to God. Ask that the saints and angels may keep watch over you, and with God’s blessing go to the rest He has appointed for you.
Neither this practice nor that of the morning should ever be omitted; by your morning prayer you open your soul’s windows to the sunshine of Righteousness, and by your evening devotions you close them against the shades of hell.
And today we celebrate...