Daily Examen Questions

The most common reason people give up on the examen is not lack of time. It is the blank moment after closing their eyes, when "review the day" produces nothing at all. A good question fixes that. It points the memory at something specific, and the prayer starts moving.

This is a companion to our guide to the daily examen in 3 minutes, which explains the five steps themselves. Here you get the questions: six for each step, written plainly, so you can choose the ones that fit your life and leave the rest.

What are the five core questions of the daily examen?

If you only want five, use these, one per step: What am I grateful for today? Lord, what do you want me to see? Where was I close to you today, and where did I drift? What do I need to ask forgiveness for? What grace do I need for tomorrow?

These five follow the order St. Ignatius of Loyola gave in the Spiritual Exercises: thanksgiving, a request for light, a review of the day, sorrow and forgiveness, and a resolution for the next day. Everything else in this post is a variation on them.

The Catechism explains why the practice matters at all: "It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience" (CCC 1779). It adds that this interiority is "all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection." The examen is a small, nightly answer to that problem.

What questions help with gratitude?

Gratitude questions work when they ask for something specific. "Am I grateful?" produces a yes. "What made me smile today?" produces a memory, and the memory is where the prayer begins.

• What is one moment today I would happily live again?
• Who did something for me today, noticed or unnoticed?
• What ordinary thing went right that I took for granted?
• Where did I see something beautiful, even for a second?
• What did I receive today that I did not earn?
• What was hard today but turned out better than I feared?

Scripture treats this as the natural first move of prayer: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22–23). Starting with thanks also changes the tone of what follows. The review becomes a look at a day God was already present in, not an audit.

What questions help you ask for light?

The second step is a request, not a review. You ask God to show you the day as it was, because left alone most people either excuse themselves or condemn themselves. These questions are really short prayers.

• Lord, what do you want me to notice about today?
• Holy Spirit, show me what I would rather not look at.
• Where am I tempted to tell today's story in my own favour?
• What would today look like from the side of the people I met?
• Is there a moment I keep avoiding in my memory?
• Lord, help me see this day with honesty and without fear.

Psalm 139 is the classic form of this step: "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts" (Psalm 139:23). Saying one of these lines slowly takes ten seconds and makes the review that follows far more honest.

What questions help you review the day?

Review questions should walk you through the day in order and look for two things: where you were close to God, and where you drifted. Ignatius called these movements consolation and desolation. The questions below make them concrete.

• Where did I feel most alive, peaceful or free today?
• Where did I feel restless, anxious or closed in on myself?
• What did I spend the most attention on, and was it worth it?
• How did I treat the people closest to me, especially when tired?
• When did I think of God today without being prompted?
• What did I do with the first and last hour of my day?

You do not need to answer all of them. Take one and let it lead you through the morning, afternoon and evening. Over a few weeks, patterns appear: a time of day, a person, a habit that reliably comes before your worst moments. That map is the real fruit of the examen.

The Catechism points to the Gospels as the standard for this kind of review, naming "the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount" as the best light for examining the conscience (CCC 1454). If a review question feels too vague, read a few lines of Matthew 5 and ask the question again.

What questions help you ask forgiveness?

These questions turn what the review showed into sorrow and trust. They are not meant to generate guilt. They name a fault, hand it to God and ask for mercy, the way you would apologise to a friend.

• What do I wish I had done differently today?
• Whom did I hurt, even slightly, and do I need to make it right?
• Where did I choose comfort over love?
• What good did I leave undone when it was in front of me?
• Is there anything today that I need to bring to confession?
• Can I accept God's forgiveness tonight instead of carrying this to bed?

The fifth question matters. The daily examen is not a sacrament, and it does not replace confession for grave sin. If the review uncovers something serious, the honest response is to plan to confess it. Our explainer on what mortal sin is sets out the three conditions the Church uses to judge that.

What questions help you look toward tomorrow?

The last step turns the day's lessons into one small, concrete intention. One is enough. A long list of resolutions is forgotten by breakfast; a single specific one tends to stick.

• What is one thing I want to do differently tomorrow?
• Which conversation or task tomorrow needs God's help most?
• Whom can I serve tomorrow in a specific way?
• When tomorrow will I pause to pray, even briefly?
• What temptation should I expect, and how will I meet it?
• What grace do I ask for tonight so I can begin well?

For the fourth question, many Catholics use the Angelus at noon as a fixed pause. It gives tomorrow's resolution a moment to be remembered.

How do you use these questions without turning the examen into a checklist?

Choose one question per step, five in total, and keep them for a week. Pray them slowly, leave a few seconds of silence after each, and stop after three to five minutes. When a question stops catching anything, swap it for another.

A simple rotation works well. Week one, use the five core questions. Week two, swap in a new review question. Week three, a new gratitude question. The structure stays the same while the questions keep the prayer from going stale.

Here is what one evening can sound like with five questions chosen from the lists above. Thank you for the long lunch with my sister. Lord, show me what I would rather not look at. I was most at peace on the walk home, and most closed in on myself during the afternoon meeting, when I stopped listening. I am sorry for the sharp reply to my colleague, and I will apologise in the morning. Tomorrow, help me listen before I answer. That is the whole prayer. It took under three minutes, and it named something real.

Three habits help. Pray at the same time each night, attached to something you already do, such as getting into bed. Keep the questions on a small card or in a note on your phone for the first few weeks. And resist the urge to answer every question in full sentences. A name, a moment or a single word is often enough before God.

The examen is prayer, not self-improvement. The questions are there to help you notice, and the noticing is offered to God. The Catechism describes Christian meditation as engaging "thought, imagination, emotion, and desire" (CCC 2708). A good examen question does exactly that: it lets you bring the whole day, feelings included, into a short conversation with God.

How are examen questions different from an examination of conscience?

The daily examen reviews the whole day, good and bad, looking for God's presence and your response to it. An examination of conscience before confession looks specifically for sins to confess, usually guided by the Ten Commandments. They overlap, but they are not the same prayer.

The two support each other. Someone who prays the examen every night finds preparing for confession much easier, because the patterns are already visible. When you are getting ready for the sacrament itself, use our guide on how to make an examination of conscience, and if it has been a long time, read how to go to confession after years away.