Evening prayer guide
The Examen is a short, prayerful review of your day — five movements that help you notice where God was present, name what you actually felt, and hand tomorrow back to Him. Here is how to pray it tonight, in about ten minutes.
The daily Examen is a practice of reviewing the day in God’s presence rather than replaying it alone. Ignatius of Loyola taught it in the 1520s as a way of finding God in ordinary hours — not only in church, but in a difficult meeting, a long drive, or a conversation you keep thinking about.
It is not journaling about your feelings, and it is not a moral inventory. It is a conversation: you walk back through the day with God and let Him show you what mattered.
01
Before reviewing anything, stop. Take a few slow breaths and remember who you are speaking to. You are not auditing your performance; you are sitting with a Father who was present in every hour of the day you are about to revisit.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart.” — Psalm 139:23
02
Walk back through the day in order — waking, morning, midday, evening. Don't rank the moments. Simply notice what was given to you: a conversation, a meal, work that went well, an unexpected kindness. Name two or three things out loud or on paper.
“Give thanks in all circumstances.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:18
03
Ask where you felt peace, joy, resentment, anxiety, or shame. Emotions are information, not verdicts. Notice where you were drawn toward God (consolation) and where you were pulled away from Him (desolation) — and be honest about both.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Put your hope in God.” — Psalm 42:5
04
Choose the single moment that carries the most weight — the one you keep returning to. Bring that specific thing to God: confess it, thank Him for it, or ask for what you need in it. One honest prayer is better than a general one.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” — 1 Peter 5:7
05
Ask for what tomorrow will require: patience, courage, a softer word, a clearer boundary. Then close the day. The Examen ends by handing tomorrow back to God rather than rehearsing it.
“His mercies are new every morning.” — Lamentations 3:23
Evening RESET™ follows the same instinct as the Examen — review the day with God — with five movements shaped for the way many of us actually carry a day home: Reflect on what happened, Examine what is fact versus the story you added, Submit it to God, Expect what is true of Him, and Trust Him with tomorrow. The extra step is examining interpretation: much of what keeps us awake is not the day itself but the meaning we assigned to it.
If you want the practice guided — with an anchor Scripture each night, prompts for each movement, and your reflections saved privately — that is what the journal is for.
Ten to fifteen minutes is typical, but five focused minutes is a real Examen. Consistency matters more than length — a short prayer every night forms you more than a long one once a month.
Most people pray it at the end of the day, before bed, while the day is still recent. Some pray a shorter version at midday and again at night.
No, but writing helps. Putting the day in words slows your thinking down and lets you notice patterns across weeks — which emotions keep returning, and where God keeps meeting you.
It comes from Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century, but the practice itself is simply prayerful review of the day before God. Christians across traditions pray it, and every movement is grounded in Scripture.
Start with honesty instead of gratitude. Tell God plainly what the day held. Gratitude in the Examen is not pretending — it is looking for where God was present even in a day you would not choose again.