Sunday, January 31, 2016

Examen App

Father Michael J. Denk, a Jesuit priest has developed an app to help you pray more effectively by walking you through the 5 main steps of the The Examination of Consciousness prayer which is based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. I learned of this app while watching EWTN on Friday this week. Father Michael was on a show talking about this app. I had it downloaded onto my iPhone and then iPad before the talk was over. I just love it. It is very easy to use and you can set a reminder for a convenient  morning and evening time to remind you to pray. Remember, prayer is just talking to God. The app walks you through the 5 parts of the examen prayer with prompts and beautiful backgrounds and scripture. There is a build in journal for you to record your reflections within each of the 5 sections of the prayer. I have only been doing this for a couple of days and already I can see how this reflective prayer is helping me to seek the Lords presence throughout the day. The prayer contains these five sections.
  1. Gratitude- remember all of the blessings of the day.
  2. Petition- ask God for the grace to see whatever He wants you to see.
  3. Discernment- ask the Father to help you realize when you were with Him and when you were moving away- and other things.
  4. Forgiveness- admit anything you are sorry for and experience His mercy.
  5. Resolution-make some practical, concrete, and doable resolutions for the day. I like this one day at-a-time focus. 

The idea is brilliant and perfect for people like me who are very much connect to our devices. Bravo Father Michael for developing this simple, yet powerful way to draw me close to God, using a tool that I work and live with. 

You can find the app at the iTunes store- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/examen-prayer/id899720088?mt=8
It's FREE :-)
You can go to http://www.theprodigalfatherproductions.org/app/ and watch a video overview of the app.

God Bless, Paula