Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve You as You deserve;

To give and not to count the cost,

To fight and not to heed the wounds, 

To toil and not to seek for rest,

To Labor and not to ask for reward,

Save that of knowing that I'm doing Your will.

 

~St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

The EXAMEN (adapted from #43 The Spiritual Exercises)

1.  Let us slow down...and pause...for today's Examen.

 

2.  We are in the loving presence of our God who sheds light upon our day.  Let us take a few moments to name some things that we are thankful for...

 

3.  Let us review our actions, feelings, and the significant events of our past days.  Share these moments in a conversation with our living God...

 

4.  I ask God to forgive my sins, and I resolve to make today better with the help of God's grace.  Loving God, please grant me the grace of ________ (pick a grace:  patience, love, hope, peace, faith, gratitude, forgiveness, mercy, understanding, courage, etc.).  Let us name one way that we will make today better, then ask for the grace you need..

 

5.  Close with a prayer (Hail Mary, or Our Father, or...).

 

 

First Principle and Foundation (#23 The Spiritual Exercises) 

Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls.

 

Other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings, to help them in pursuit of the end for which they are created.

 

From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it.

 

To attain this,it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden.  Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, and long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.

 

Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.