On the Practice of the Particular Examen

On a par with the perfection of our daily works and recollection of mind, the practice of the particular examen is one of the principal means of acquiring solid virtue, and justly so, for it produces the most excellent results, and is the speediest and most efficacious means of extirpating vices and implanting virtues. This is the reason why its practice is recommended with so much earnestness by the holy Fathers and by spiritual writers, not only to those who begin to walk in the ways of sanctity, but also to those who have a long time trodden therein.

1st. Inquire what subjects you are in the habit of choosing, whether or not fit ones for the particular examen. Then see what is your predominant passion, also what is the defect which gives you most trouble, which is the root of other defects, which is a hindrance to greater perfection, and which brings you nearer to mortal sin.

2d. After these faults have been corrected, the subjects of the particular examen are the perfection of our daily actions, fervor in prayer, recollection of mind and purity of intention, in order that you may conform yourself in all things to the rules of true sanctity.

3d. After this you will labor particularly to acquire the virtue of which you stand most in need, and which certain circumstances indicate is of all others the most necessary for you.

4th. The imperfection by which offence and trouble are given to others is especially to be corrected by this method. You should not, however, be wholly occupied in correcting these external faults. For as all the glory of the king's daughter (or the soul) is within (Psalm xliv. 14), all your labor should first be directed to govern its internal motions, according to the rules of rectitude, so that all your rebellious appetites be entirely conquered. Therefore, examine whether you have thus far observed all this, and decide what you will do in future.

But, that you may with greater certainty reap the desired fruit, you must above all observe the following rules:

1st. The root of the disease is to be carefully sought after, and when it has been discovered, every effort should at once be made to eradicate it.

2d. This examination is made on only one thing, so that the particular vice you purpose to conquer by this means ought not to be attacked as a whole, but divided as it were into parts, which you must gradually assail and defeat and thus overcome the whole.

3d. The subject of this exercise should not be changed. They who allow themselves to pass lightly from one subject to another make a great mistake. Yet the primary subject may, according to circumstances and the disposition of the mind, be interrupted for a short time and be exchanged for another in order to avoid tedium; provided, however, that after some weeks one returns with renewed vigor to the purpose, and wages war more bitterly and energetically against the mortal enemy. See how far you have acquired a thorough knowledge of these rules.

Besides this, examine yourself as to the method of performing this exercise, which comprises these rules:

1st. This spiritual warfare is to be commenced with a serious, fervent and very firm resolution of amendment, which is to be made every morning and renewed at noon. This resolution of the mind is not to extend over the whole course of life, lest, frightened by the number of years, you despair of correction; but only from one half day to another, that, by this very shortness of the interval, you may be more powerfully animated to pursue with constancy the work you have undertaken.

2d. During the day reasonable care should be taken to remember and foster this resolution by foreseeing the occasion wherein you are to put it into execution, by avoiding the danger of falling, by asking of God the grace to fulfil your resolution, and by making an act of contrition as often as you fail.

3d. Twice every day, at noon and in the evening, you should examine your conscience, and during these examinations you should inquire what faults you have committed, and after having excited sorrow for them, and again promised amendment, you should mark the number of these faults in a little book kept for that purpose, so that you may compare the number committed in the afternoon with that of the morning; to-day with yesterday, the present with the past week; that by such comparison you may learn whether you have made any progress, or whether you remain miserably fixed in your old habits. Reflect now upon the care and exactness with which you have up to the present performed this exercise, or, at least, with which you are determined to perform it in future.

Oh, what a severe account you will have to render before the great tribunal for having neglected this practice! Will you allow yourself by your indolence to be surpassed in an affair which concerns the salvation of your soul, and your progress in solid virtue by the very merchants who with such great care mark down in their account-books and daily ledgers their gains and losses? They will condemn the carelessness with which you have kept your accounts in this spiritual business. There shall arise so many happy inhabitants of Heaven, who, raised on high by means of these little books of the particular examen, have reached such a height of sanctity and bliss. They shall arise, I say, and put you to shame for your supine neglect. Alas! how great then will be your confusion, when you see that these merchants have done more for mammon than you for God; when you shall see that you have lost so much time in useless note-taking, and have not employed one single moment to note down the faults of your soul, that you have made light of this excellent and most useful exercise, on the plea that it was a pious little practice suited to novices: that, after spending so many years in religion, you have not by it corrected a single fault or acquired a single virtue! Ah! if you be wise do now what if neglected will fill you with sorrow; if done, with joy.

"O Lord! let the day perish, and let it not be counted in the days of the year" (Job iii. 6) in which I shall neglect to mark down my faults, and to make this profitable comparison. I am determined with the help of Thy grace that no day shall henceforth pass without this exercise. I will prepare a little book, so that by this means, constantly practised, I may completely root out the vices of my soul, and implant therein all virtues.