Particular Examen

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Particular Examen. Ideally suited to what we have just remarked is the practice promoted in many religious orders of a daily checkup on one specific virtue to be acquired or fault to be overcome. At a regular time each day a person, lay or religious, examines how he or she has done during the previous twenty-four hours regarding a fault (impatient reactions or idle words or coldness toward another) or a virtue (temperance at meals, thinking before speaking, recalling God's presence). Then, for a few more moments, the particular individual plans specifically how to improve on that point during the next day. The examen closes with a brief prayer for success. Fidelity to this exercise obviously is a great aid to steady growth.

Being Specific

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Being Specific. It is easy enough to aspire to great things in general, to entertain grandiose ideas of holiness in other circumstances or later in life, but it is quite another matter to live a perfect life in this present place, with this husband or wife, with this illness or weakness or handicap, in these circumstances. When St. Therese of Lisieux was interrupted in her work by a troublesome nun, she prepared herself specifically to react lovingly in coming episodes which she could foresee. Therese was not content with "I shall be better" in a vague sort of way. She thought out and decided what she had to do in particulars: smile and be gentle. She prepared herself in advance to do just that, to be ready for the annoyance. She was specific. Are my hopes for holiness nebulous and thus ineffectual? Or do I develop concrete plans to be rid of my faults and to acquire the virtues I lack? Do I plan?

Radicality

A quotation from Thomas Dubay's Seeking Spiritual Direction: How to Grow the Divine Life Within:

Radicality. While we should follow the advice of our confessor or director in our choices of specific practices and penances, and thus avoid attempts beyond our present strength, we ought at the same time to shun half-hearted lukewarmness. Radicality (from the Latin radix, root) means here that we take means suited to the end, that we get to the roots of our problems and deal with them adequately. If we wonder what this means in practice, we need only read the lives of the saints. They are not timid. They do not operate by fractions. Do I?