Grace: Ask for shame and confusion, seeing how many souls have chosen to live forever separated from God’s love, and for an acute awareness of my own potential of doing the same. Text for Prayer: Isaiah 55:1-5 1st Point: By placing God at the center and all created things at His service and praise, we have… Read more »

Grace: To know the Spirit of God at work in my daily life. Reflection: Google came up with 304,000 results to my search query “Examen of Conscience.” Needless to say, a lot of great material on one of St. Ignatius’ most prized forms of prayer is already floating out there online for you to discover. While… Read more »

Grace: To love and serve God with an undivided heart, and to value all created things inasmuch as they lead me to God. Text for Prayer: Romans 1:20 Reflection: God does not do anything by accident; “coincidence” is not in His vocabulary. “Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and… Read more »

Grace:  That my intentions, actions, and entire life might be purely ordered to the praise and service of my Creator and Lord. Text:  Ps 117 Reflection:  Today we receive ashes on our foreheads and head into the desert for 40 days.  What will guide us along the way? We might be inclined to draw up an… Read more »

Grace:  To be free from the obstacles in our lives and in ourselves that prevent us from knowing God and to trust that God will meet us when we sincerely seek Him. Text for prayer: Ps 91 Reflection:  Many years of St. Ignatius’s life were poured into the development of the Spiritual Exercises.  This work,… Read more »

Grace: To know the mercy of the Father and His unconditional love for me — even in the midst of my sinfulness. Text for Prayer: Lk. 15:11-32 Reflection:  The Prodigal Son story is one of the most familiar parables in the New Testament that one can return to time and again.  We recall the basic… Read more »

Grace: A growing intense sorrow and, if God so wishes, even tears for my sins. Text for Prayer: the Third Exercise of the First Week, Spiritual Exercises no. 62-63 Reflection: In the Gospel of St. Luke, Our Lord tells the story of the persistent widow who won consideration from the judge because of her perseverance.  Here… Read more »

Grace: To feel the pain of those who are eternally separated from God, so that if I should forget God’s love for me, the fear of eternal separation from Him would keep me from sinning. Reflection: Just as we have meditated upon the moment of death and its inevitability for us, now we turn to… Read more »

Grace: To understand that I will one day come before the Lord, and to realize how my relationship with Him is able to be strengthened and renewed at every moment of my life. Text for Prayer: Ezekiel 37: 1-3 Reflection: It has been observed that ours is a culture that does not like to face… Read more »

Grace: To grow in sorrow for my sins, to be overcome with shame and confusion before God for my sinfulness. Text for Prayer: Lk 5:1-8 Reflection: The graces that St. Ignatius suggests we ask for at this point in the Exercises are shame and confusion, and they can be especially difficult graces for us to… Read more »