Program / Course 20: Spiritual Theology / Lesson 7.4
What you will learn
- Explain why the tradition builds review into a rule of life.
- Describe the Ignatian examen, Puritan self-examination and Wesley’s questions as historical forms of review.
- State how Benedict’s Rule allows adjustment by season, person and circumstance.
- Identify tests the traditions use to judge whether a rule is bearing good fruit.
The big idea
A rule that is never reviewed becomes either a dead routine or a forgotten intention. The traditions therefore pair practice with examination. Ignatius taught a short daily review of the day, Puritans and Wesley used questions for self-examination, and Benedict built flexibility into his Rule so that the abbot could adjust it for persons and seasons. The traditions agree on the tests: whether the rule bears the fruits of love and humility, whether it can be sustained, and whether it fits the person’s calling. Review is meant to be honest without becoming anxious.
Key terms
- Examen
- From the Latin for examination. A short prayerful review of the day or period, developed by Ignatius of Loyola, to notice God’s gifts and one’s responses.
- Self-examination
- The practice of testing one’s life and conscience in the light of Scripture. See 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Lamentations 3:40.
- Discretion
- In Benedict and Cassian, the virtue of right measure, which adapts a rule to persons and circumstances.
- Retreat
- A period set apart, from a day to a month, for prayer and reflection, often used for reviewing one’s life and rule.
- Scrupulosity
- Anxious preoccupation with faults and rules, which can make examination harmful. Guides advise moderation and counsel.
- Church year (liturgical year)
- The yearly cycle of seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, which provides natural points for review.
Background
Scripture links examination with return to God. Lamentations says: let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord (Lamentations 3:40). Paul tells the Corinthians to examine themselves whether they be in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5) and the Psalmist prays: search me, O God, and know my heart (Psalm 139:23). The desert tradition required monks to open their thoughts to elders and to examine their day before sleep. The idea of review is therefore old and widespread.
As earlier lessons showed, a rule is meant to serve a purpose and not to be an end in itself. Without review, there is no way to tell whether it serves that purpose. At the same time, constant self-scrutiny can harm. The traditions teach that review should be regular but limited, and carried out with trust in God’s mercy. This lesson draws on three historical examples and the guidance they give.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The Ignatian examen
Ignatius of Loyola, in the Spiritual Exercises, set down a brief examination of conscience to be made twice a day. It is often described in five steps. The person gives thanks for the gifts of the day, asks for light to see clearly, reviews the day for movements of consolation and desolation and for faults, asks forgiveness and resolves to amend. Ignatius gave the examen great weight in the life of the Jesuits.
Its order is notable. It begins with gratitude, not with faults. This guards against the habit of making review an exercise in self-reproach. Catholic and many other Christians use the examen today.
Step 2: Puritan, Wesleyan and Edwardsian review
Puritan writers urged daily and weekly self-examination before God in the light of Scripture, and used the preparation for the Lord’s Supper as a time of special review. Jonathan Edwards, as a young man, wrote a list of resolutions to guide his life, and resolved to read them over once a week. John Wesley and the early Methodists used lists of questions in their meetings, asking about the use of time, the keeping of means of grace and the state of the soul. The classes and bands of Methodism built mutual review into the structure of their fellowship.
These examples show the Protestant concern for honesty before God and the use of Scripture as the standard. They also show the risk of introspection, which Edwards himself acknowledged in his writings on religious affections.
Step 3: Benedict and adjustment
Benedict built flexibility into his Rule. The order of the psalms may be rearranged if the abbot thinks better, provided the whole Psalter is said each week (chapter 18). The hours and meals change with the seasons: the community rises earlier in winter, eats at different hours in summer and Lent, and wears clothing suited to the climate. The abbot is to consider each monk’s strength in assigning work and food (chapters 34, 39, 40 and 48). The sick, the old and the young have special allowances. The abbot must be discreet, avoiding extremes, so that the strong have something to strive for and the weak have nothing to run from (chapter 64).
The principle is that the rule serves persons and not the reverse. Discretion decides how, within the rule, to meet differing needs.
Step 4: Tests of fruit
How can a person judge a rule? The traditions offer a few tests. Does the rule produce the fruits Paul lists in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace and the rest, or does it breed anxiety, pride and contempt? Can it be sustained for a year without collapse? Does it leave time for duties to family, work and neighbors? Does it include worship with others? Does a wise friend or guide see good in it? And is it adjusted when life changes, as in illness, a new child, a job loss or bereavement?
A rule that fails these tests should be changed. Changing a rule is not failing, but part of the discipline. Ecclesiastes says that to every thing there is a season (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
Step 5: Rhythms of review
Practical rhythms appear in the traditions. A brief daily review, as in the examen. A weekly look back, perhaps on the Lord’s Day. A longer review at natural points in the church year, such as the beginning of Advent or Lent, or a yearly retreat. Reviewing with a guide or a trusted friend. In the Orthodox tradition, review is often done at confession and in conversation with the spiritual father. In Protestant churches, the pastor, a small group or an accountability partner can serve. Whatever the rhythm, the traditions advise keeping it simple and ending with thanksgiving.
- How often do I look honestly at how my practices are going?
- Does my review begin with gratitude or with fault-finding?
- What fruits do I see in my life that suggest my rule is helping?
- What fruits suggest it is harming, or only feeding pride?
- Whom could I invite into my review?
- What changes in my life would require me to adjust my rule?
Examples
An examen in five minutes
At the end of the day, a man sits quietly and thanks God for three specific gifts. He asks for light, recalls the day from morning to night, notes where he was impatient and where he was kind, asks forgiveness and resolves to call his mother the next day. He ends with the Lord’s Prayer. (A description of the pattern, adapted to everyday life.)
Edwards’s weekly reading
Jonathan Edwards’s Resolutions began, in his youth, with the statement that he was unable to do anything without God’s help. He wrote to read them over regularly. A modern reader may notice how he joined ambition with dependence on grace. (A historical illustration.)
A rule adjusted for a season
A couple with a newborn replace their one-hour morning rule with a single psalm and a prayer said together at night. At the end of the first year, they extend it to ten minutes. They do not regard the shorter rule as failure. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching values examination of conscience, in daily form and in preparation for the sacrament of penance, and promotes the Ignatian examen. It stresses that review is made in trust in God’s mercy and, for those with scruples, under the direction of a confessor or director.
Orthodox
Orthodox Christians practice evening prayers that include a review of the day, and confession with a priest. Orthodox teachers advise adjusting the rule with the confessor’s blessing, and warn against self-made severity and against self-justification.
Protestant
Protestants have a long tradition of self-examination under Scripture, from the Puritans and Wesley to modern small groups. Many warn that introspection must not replace trust in Christ’s finished work, and counsel looking to Christ more than to oneself.
Practical and clinical view
Writers on habit formation note that regular review improves consistency, that small adjustments are more sustainable than large ones and that harsh self-criticism tends to undermine change. Clinicians advise that people prone to anxiety or perfectionism review gently and with support.
Why it matters
Review is what turns a rule from a set of intentions into a living practice. The traditions’ examples show how to examine honestly without despair, to adjust without giving up and to keep gratitude at the center. A student who ends the course with a plan and a way to review it has something that can last.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Changing my rule means I have failed.
Correction: Benedict, the Orthodox elders and Protestant pastors all expect adjustment by season and circumstance. Changing a rule is part of discretion.
Misunderstanding: Examination of conscience is mostly about listing faults.
Correction: The Ignatian examen begins with thanks, and all traditions place examination within trust in God’s mercy.
Misunderstanding: A good rule is measured by how I feel.
Correction: Feelings are an unreliable measure. The traditions look to fruits such as love and humility, to sustainability and to counsel.
Misunderstanding: Only monks need review.
Correction: Puritans, Methodists and lay Catholics and Orthodox have all practiced review, and the practice is recommended for anyone with a rule.
Knowledge check
What are the steps of the Ignatian examen?
Giving thanks for the day’s gifts, asking for light, reviewing the day for consolations, desolations and faults, asking forgiveness, and resolving to amend. It begins with gratitude, which guards against turning review into self-reproach. It is brief and can be done daily.
How does Benedict allow for adjustment?
The abbot may rearrange the psalms provided the whole Psalter is said weekly, hours and meals shift with the seasons, and the weak, sick, old and young have allowances. The abbot is to use discretion so that the strong have something to strive for and the weak nothing to run from.
What tests do the traditions use to judge a rule?
Whether it bears fruits such as love, joy and peace, and humility rather than pride. Whether it can be sustained for a year, leaves room for duties and worship with others, and is seen as good by a wise friend or guide. And whether it is adjusted as life changes.
Why is review a risk as well as a help?
Constant self-scrutiny can lead to scrupulosity, anxiety or self-absorption. The traditions advise regular but limited review, begun in gratitude, carried out in trust in God’s mercy and, for those prone to anxiety, with a guide. Protestants add that one should look to Christ more than to oneself.
Think it through
- What rhythm of review could you keep for a year?
- How would you keep review from turning into self-reproach?
- What would you want a friend to say to you after reading your rule?
Independent assignment
Writing the first draft and the review plan
In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Draw together what you have learned in this course and write a first draft of a modest rule of life: three to five practices with their times, drawn from at least two historical sources and several passages of Scripture. Then describe how and when you will review it (daily, weekly and yearly), who will be invited into the review, and what signs would lead you to change it. Keep this for yourself, and revise it after a month.
Further study
- Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict Read chapters 18, 39, 40, 48 and 64 for Benedict’s provisions for adjustment and discretion.
- John Cassian, The Conferences Read Conference 2 on discretion.
- John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions Read for Wesley’s account of the means of grace and the examination of one’s life.
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Read Book 10 as an example of honest self-examination before God.
- Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart.
- Lamentations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves.
- Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season.