The Pilgrim's Rule
Chapter 8
The Evening Reckoning
Examination, forgiveness, and surrender at the close of day.
Let not the sun go down upon your anger.
Every evening is a reckoning.
The hours that appeared open at dawn have become history. Words were spoken and cannot be recalled into silence. Duties were completed, neglected, or displaced. were resisted, entertained, or accepted. Persons were helped, ignored, wounded, forgiven, or carried in prayer. Graces were received, sometimes recognized and sometimes passed without thanksgiving.
The day is no longer imagined.
It is actual.
At evening the pilgrim stands before God with this actual day.
He does not come to prove that he was useful. He does not conduct a private performance review. He does not measure salvation by visible output or emotional success.
He comes as a creature, redeemed by Christ, responsible for freedom, dependent upon , and moving toward judgment.
He gives thanks.
He tells the truth.
He asks mercy.
He makes repair.
He surrenders the night.
The Day Returns to Its Giver
Time is received, not possessed.
At morning, the pilgrim offered hours he had not yet lived. At evening, he returns hours that can never be lived again.
This final offering differs from the first.
The morning offering contained intention.
The evening offering contains fruit.
Some fruit is good because moved the will and the will cooperated. Some is damaged by negligence, vanity, impatience, or self-love. Some duties bear no visible result, though they were faithfully performed. Some apparent successes conceal an intention. Some failures hide acts of known only to God.
The pilgrim cannot change what the day has become.
He can place it beneath mercy and truth.
“Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” The words of the Psalmist, taken upon the lips of Christ at His death, teach the soul how to surrender everything to the Father.[^1]
Evening prayer returns the day to the One from whom it came.
Examination Is an Act of Religion
Examination of is not mere introspection.
It is performed before God.
The pilgrim acknowledges the divine law, God's knowledge of the heart, the judgment to come, and the mercy opened through Jesus Christ. He seeks to know himself because he belongs to Another.
is not an autonomous voice inventing good and evil. It is the judgment of reason concerning the moral quality of a concrete act. It must be formed by truth, Scripture, the commandments, sound doctrine, legitimate , and the duties of one's state.[^2]
The evening examination therefore asks more than, “How do I feel about today?”
Feeling can awaken attention, but it cannot establish the moral law.
The pilgrim asks:
What did God command?
What duty was truly mine?
What did I know?
What did I choose?
Whom did my choice serve or injure?
What was offered?
What response now belongs to repentance and ?
This is worship because the truth is received beneath God's .
Begin with the Presence of God
The soul should not begin by staring into itself.
It begins by entering the presence of God through faith.
God is already present. He sustained every breath, witnessed every hidden choice, provided every , and permitted the pilgrim to reach this hour. Nothing discovered in examination will surprise Him.
The Sign of the Cross establishes the tribunal beneath the Trinity and the Redemption.
The Father before whom the soul stands sent the Son for sinners.
The Son who will judge gave His Blood for their salvation.
The Holy Ghost convicts the world of sin and pours into the heart.
Divine judgment is not indifferent to evil.
Divine mercy is not reluctant to forgive.
The pilgrim recollects both truths.
“Lord, Thou hast known me. Show me this day in Thy light. Preserve me from concealment, exaggeration, and despair.”
Only light from God permits the soul to see sin without making sin the center.
Thanksgiving Comes First
St. Ignatius begins the general examination with thanksgiving for benefits received.[^3]
This order is spiritually exact.
precedes response. Creation precedes stewardship. Redemption precedes meritorious cooperation. The sinner examining himself is already surrounded by gifts he did not earn.
Give thanks concretely.
For the morning awakening.
For the Holy Sacrifice, , Scripture, or prayer received.
For food, water, shelter, work, strength, medicine, correction, friendship, and protection.
For the duty that trained .
For the resisted.
For the fall that exposed weakness before it grew worse.
For the person who required .
For the hidden act of another that made the day possible.
For the mercy of being permitted to repent before death.
Thanksgiving does not deny suffering.
It refuses to let suffering erase every gift.
Ask for Light and Grace
Memory is selective.
remembers what supports innocence. Shame exaggerates what supports condemnation. Resentment preserves another's fault and forgets one's own response. Vanity remembers praise. Discouragement gathers failure into a false totality.
The pilgrim therefore asks for before reviewing the day.
St. Ignatius directs the soul to ask to know its sins and cast them out. Examination is not self-powered discovery. It is prayer for truthful sight ordered toward .[^4]
Ask the Holy Ghost to reveal what matters.
Not every detail has equal weight.
One deliberate act of grave injustice matters more than a dozen harmless awkward moments. A duty omitted through matters differently from a task missed through unavoidable weakness. An involuntary is not equal to entertained consent.
Light distinguishes.
The soul needs illumination not merely to accuse, but to judge according to the real moral order.
Walk through the Actual Day
St. Ignatius recommends asking an account of the soul from the hour of rising to the present examination, period by period.[^5]
This prevents vague condemnation.
Move through the day simply:
Waking and first prayer.
The household and morning duties.
Work, study, travel, messages, meals, interruptions, and rest.
Conversations and solitude.
The use of money, property, body, and attention.
The hidden movements that became chosen acts.
The pilgrim does not need to reconstruct every minute.
He looks for morally significant choices, recurring patterns, and duties that carried a genuine claim.
What happened?
What did I do?
What was my intention?
What should have governed me?
Where uncertainty remains, note it without forcing certainty. A question can be brought to confession or competent counsel.
Examine Duties before Impressions
A man may feel satisfied after neglecting his state in life.
Another may feel unsuccessful after keeping it faithfully.
Evening truth begins with duties.
Did I give God the worship and due to Him?
Did I keep the commandments?
Did I honor vows, promises, and lawful ?
Did I fulfill responsibilities to spouse, children, parents, household, employer, worker, student, parish, and neighbor according to my state?
Did I render honest work?
Did I protect another's life, reputation, property, , and peace?
Did I respond to a grave need within my responsibility?
Did I take the rest and care required to preserve duty, or misuse “duty” to exhaustion and harshness?
The examination of obligations exposes a common deception: chosen good works can coexist with binding .
God is not honored by a devotion used to avoid .
Sins Committed and Good Omitted
Sin includes more than forbidden acts performed.
It includes commanded good knowingly and culpably omitted.
The final judgment in Matthew 25 presents of mercy with terrible clarity: “I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat.” The servant who buried the talent is judged not for destroying it but for failing to use what was entrusted.[^6]
At evening, ask:
What evil did I choose?
What good did I refuse?
What truth should I have spoken?
What necessary silence did I break?
Whose need did I pretend not to see?
What binding work did I delay without reason?
Which occasion of sin did I knowingly preserve?
The pilgrim must not invent duties after the fact. No one can perform every possible good. becomes culpable where there was a real obligation, sufficient knowledge, and freedom proportionate to the act.
has an order.
Examination must keep it.
Object, Intention, and Circumstances
The morality of a human act is judged through its object, intention, and circumstances.[^7]
The object concerns what is actually chosen.
The intention concerns the end for which the person chooses it.
Circumstances include persons, time, place, manner, consequences, and other features that can increase or diminish goodness, evil, responsibility, or gravity.
A good intention cannot make an intrinsically evil act good.
One may not lie, steal, blaspheme, commit , or injure the innocent so that some desired benefit may follow.
At the same time, an outwardly good act can be corrupted by a sinful end. Almsgiving for vanity, correction for revenge, prayer for display, or work for domination carries disorder within the will.
Evening examination should therefore look beneath appearance.
What did I choose?
Why did I choose it?
What circumstances did I knowingly accept?
What consequence was reasonably foreseeable?
This structure trains moral realism.
Mortal and Venial Sin
The distinction between mortal and belongs to revealed moral truth, not to temperament.
For a sin to be mortal, grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent must be present together. destroys in the heart and deprives the soul of sanctifying . wounds and disposes toward graver falls without breaking the covenant with God in the same manner.[^8]
The anxious soul may treat every imperfection as mortal.
The lax soul may treat grave matter as trivial.
Both need formation.
Grave matter is specified especially by the Ten Commandments and the seriousness of the good violated. Knowledge and consent concern the person's actual awareness and freedom. Passion, fear, habit, external pressure, psychological disturbance, ignorance, and other factors may affect imputability without automatically erasing it.[^9]
The pilgrim should not declare himself innocent merely because the act was emotionally difficult.
Nor should he declare mortal guilt merely because the thought was frightening.
Where a serious doubt persists, seek a sound confessor.
Temptation Is Not Consent
Evening review can become cruel when involuntary movements are counted as chosen sins.
An image appeared.
Fear surged.
Anger moved before deliberation.
An unwanted or thought entered the mind.
The person felt 's attraction and resisted.
These facts do not by themselves establish consent.
St. Francis de Sales distinguishes , the pleasure or attraction that may arise, and the will's consent. The soul may suffer a intensely and remain faithful because it refuses cooperation.[^10]
The examination asks:
Did I seek the ?
Did I knowingly preserve its occasion?
Did I deliberately entertain the thought for pleasure?
Did I choose the proposed act?
Did I resist and return?
The pilgrim gives thanks for resistance rather than confessing the enemy's attack as his own deed.
He confesses any voluntary cooperation plainly.
The Scrupulous Examination
turns examination into a court without adjournment.
The soul reviews the same moment repeatedly, demands certainty beyond human reach, enlarges harmless details, and distrusts . It may believe that greater anxiety produces greater .
It does not.
belongs to the will moved by . Anxiety is not a and intensity of feeling is not the measure of repentance.
The pilgrim should keep the examination brief, use an approved method, and a confessor. He should not reconfess doubtful or already matter contrary to direction. He should distinguish “I cannot prove innocence” from “I know I consented.”
When the appointed examination ends, it ends.
The soul entrusts uncertainty to God and follows .
St. Francis de Sales repeatedly counsels and peace after faults rather than angry disturbance at oneself.[^11]
The man often fears laxity.
His needed mortification may be to stop examining.
The Lax Examination
The opposite danger is a that refuses detail.
“I am basically good.”
“No one is perfect.”
“God understands.”
These statements may contain truths while being used to conceal chosen evil.
A lax examination avoids the commandments, gravity, number, circumstances, and consequences of sin. It explains before admitting. It compares with worse sinners. It treats repeated as harmless because each act appears small.
But is not nothing.
It weakens , hinders , merits temporal punishment, and can dispose the soul toward .[^12]
The remedy is specificity.
Not “I struggled with ,” but “I repeated damaging information about my neighbor without a just reason.”
Not “I had a difficult day,” but “I knowingly falsified the report to protect myself.”
Not “I was distracted,” but “I chose entertainment for an hour while a binding duty remained.”
Mercy heals sins confessed in truth.
Contrition
After examining, the pilgrim asks pardon.
is sorrow of soul and detestation for sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again. When it arises from love of God above all things, it is perfect . It remits venial sins and obtains forgiveness of mortal sins when it includes the firm resolution to receive confession as soon as possible.[^13]
Imperfect , arising from of sin's ugliness or fear of punishment, is also a gift of God and disposes the sinner toward forgiveness, though it does not by itself obtain forgiveness of grave sin.[^14]
The pilgrim should awaken sorrow through truth:
God is infinitely good.
Christ suffered for sin.
rejects divine friendship for a created good.
wounds the love the soul should guard.
The neighbor bears harm.
The sinner deforms himself.
Then he makes an act of , not relying upon emotion but sincerely rejecting sin and willing .
Purpose of Amendment
looks backward and forward.
The sin is detested.
The occasion must be addressed.
A purpose of does not require certainty that one will never fall again. No creature can guarantee future perseverance by private strength. It does require a present sincere will to avoid the sin and use the necessary means.
Ask:
What occasion must be removed?
What conversation must cease?
What device, place, relationship, substance, or habit repeatedly opens the door?
What prayer or help should be sought?
What boundary, accountability, or counsel is needed?
What contrary should be practiced tomorrow?
The resolution should be concrete.
“I will never be impatient” is too broad.
“When the first delay comes, I will remain silent, make one aspiration, and answer only after the other person finishes” can be .
Repentance without willingness to change the occasion remains incomplete.
The Sacrament of Penance
The evening examination is not a substitute for confession.
Christ entrusted the forgiveness of post-baptismal sin to His in the of . The penitent brings , confession, and satisfaction; Christ acts through the ministry of the priest to forgive and reconcile.[^15]
If the pilgrim is conscious of , he should make an act of perfect , resolve to confess as soon as reasonably possible, and refrain from Holy Communion until , except under the grave and limited conditions recognized by .[^16]
He should not delay because of shame.
Shame can become when it leads the sinner to the tribunal of mercy.
Venial sins may also be confessed. Regular confession helps form , resist evil tendencies, receive Christ's healing, and progress in the life of the Spirit.[^17]
The nightly examination prepares material simply.
It does not attempt to pronounce over itself.
Restitution and Repair
Repentance must face the neighbor's loss.
Stolen property should be . A false report should be corrected. Reputation damaged should be repaired as far as possible. Work falsely billed should be made good. An apology should name the offense without shifting blame.
St. Thomas teaches that belongs to commutative and is necessary when another has been deprived. Where exact restoration is impossible, proportionate compensation should be made as far as possible.[^18]
The evening examination asks:
What do I now possess that belongs to another?
What harm remains because of my act?
Who has a right to truth, payment, correction, apology, or reputation?
can be morally complex. It must not expose another to new injustice, reveal secrets without right, or be improvised in a way that causes greater harm. A confessor or competent adviser may be needed.
But complexity must not become an excuse for indefinite delay.
Write the necessary action.
Begin it promptly.
Forgive before Night
“Let not the sun go down upon your anger.”[^19]
The command does not require every conflict to be solved before sleep. Facts may be unclear. Another person may be unavailable or unsafe. Reconciliation can require time, , repentance, and changed conduct.
It does require the Christian to refuse deliberate hatred and vengeance.
Forgiveness is an act rooted in . The offended person relinquishes the will to return evil for evil and desires the offender's true good under God. He may still seek protection, , correction, or lawful punishment.
The Catechism teaches that the petition “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” cannot be separated from the Christian life. The heart that closes itself to forgiveness also closes itself against receiving mercy.[^20]
At evening, name the injury before God.
Do not deny it.
Do not rehearse it for pleasure.
Pray for the offender's conversion and salvation.
Renew forgiveness as often as resentment returns.
Forgiveness Is Not Unsafe Reconciliation
Forgiveness and reconciliation are related but distinct.
Forgiveness can be offered from the will even when the offender is absent, unrepentant, or dangerous.
Reconciliation ordinarily requires truth, mutual willingness, and conditions in which communion can be responsibly .
The victim of abuse is not required to return to danger in order to prove forgiveness. A parent can forgive and still protect a child. A superior can forgive and still impose just discipline. A crime can be forgiven personally and reported lawfully.
seeks the offender's true good, which includes conversion from evil.
Sentimentality that preserves another's power to injure is not necessarily mercy.
The pilgrim should seek pastoral, legal, or professional help when harm is serious. Evening prayer must not become a place where a victim is pressured to erase facts or assume blame for another's sin.
“I forgive” does not mean “nothing happened.”
It means “I will not make hatred my master, and I entrust to God while fulfilling my own duties in truth.”
Ask Forgiveness from the Neighbor
The pilgrim may discover that he is the offender.
If reconciliation with a neighbor is possible and , he should not hide behind private prayer. Our Lord commands the worshipper who remembers that his brother has something against him to seek reconciliation.[^21]
A truthful apology does not say:
“I am sorry you felt hurt.”
It says:
“I spoke . I harmed you. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?”
Explanation may be necessary, but it should not erase responsibility.
The offender cannot demand immediate emotional relief from the person he injured. He makes apology, , and because and require them, not to control the other's response.
Some conversations should wait until morning because fatigue, alcohol, anger, danger, or complexity makes nighttime discussion imprudent.
In that case, resolve upon the right time and means.
Do not let “later” become “never.”
The Household at Evening
Evening order belongs not only to individuals but to households.
A family can close the day through a common prayer suited to age, strength, and circumstance. A Psalm, the Rosary, Compline, spiritual reading, examination in silence, petitions, and prayers for the dead can gather the home beneath God.
The form should be reverent without becoming oppressive.
Children need real formation, but excessive length can make the common prayer an occasion of resentment and disorder. Parents should teach by consistency, explanation, and example.
The household may also need practical closure:
common rooms.
Prepare what morning requires.
Check necessary safety.
Speak affection.
Settle what can be settled.
Avoid beginning avoidable controversies at the hour when reason and are weakest.
The home at night should become a place of peace, not merely exhaustion.
Unfinished Work
Every evening contains incompletion.
The worker sees what remains. The parent remembers a need unanswered. The student knows what is not mastered. The apostle sees souls still far from God.
experiences unfinished work as accusation.
Providence reveals it as creaturely truth.
No man completes the government of the world before sleep. God continues working while the creature becomes unconscious. The work that genuinely belongs to tomorrow can be entrusted rather than mentally performed all night.
List what must not be forgotten.
Communicate any changed expectation.
Choose the first necessary act for morning.
Then release it.
If a duty can still be completed without harming a higher obligation, finish it. If continuing would steal needed sleep, damage the household, or feed perfectionism, stop at the proper measure.
The command to rest is also a command to admit that God is God.
Prepare Tomorrow without Living There
evening preparation serves the first hour.
Lay out what is needed. Record appointments. Identify the principal duty. Remove foreseeable obstacles. Set a reasonable waking time. Place prayer before avoidable noise.
But planning can become anxiety.
The mind rehearses conversations, solves imaginary disasters, and tries to obtain emotional certainty about events not yet given.
Our Lord forbids anxious solicitude for tomorrow: “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.”[^22]
Prepare what duty requires.
Entrust what foresight cannot control.
The future is not a room the pilgrim can enter tonight.
He can only offer it to Providence.
Close the Gates of Attention
The last impressions of evening often accompany the mind into sleep.
Messages, arguments, images, and reports continue moving after the device is set down. The body lies in darkness while the imagination remains in public noise.
A rule of evening therefore closes the gates.
Choose a final time for nonurgent messages.
Do not bring endless reports into bed.
Refuse entertainment that awakens , agitation, or compulsive continuation.
Let sacred reading, the Holy Name, a Psalm, or quiet gratitude hold the final deliberate attention.
This is not fear of technology.
It is custody of the threshold.
The pilgrim should not give the world's loudest voice the privilege of speaking last.
Compline
's night prayer gives the evening its fullest language.
Compline gathers examination, confession, psalmody, Scripture, protection in spiritual combat, the Canticle of Simeon, Marian prayer, and surrender into the keeping of God.
“Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace.” Simeon receives Christ and becomes ready to depart.[^23]
The prayer is suited to every evening because every sleep resembles a small departure.
The pilgrim who can pray 's office should receive its form gratefully. Another may use a shorter approved night prayer, a Psalm, the Our Father, Hail Mary, Creed, act of , and commendation to God.
The form varies with vocation and capacity.
The essential movement remains:
The day is complete.
The servant has seen salvation.
The soul rests beneath the Lord's protection.
Silence after the Final Prayer
St. Benedict commands special zeal for silence during the night. After Compline, ordinary speech ends, with exceptions for necessity, guests, or a superior's command, handled with fitting seriousness.[^24]
This silence seals the day.
Without it, the examination can be immediately undone by , argument, entertainment, or unnecessary work. The soul that commended itself to God returns to agitation before reaching bed.
The lay pilgrim adapts the principle.
Necessary family speech continues.
Care of children, the sick, guests, safety, and lawful duty may require words.
But ordinary noise can cease.
Speak softly.
Do not reopen settled controversies.
Do not search for stimulation.
Let the house know that the day has been placed in God's hands.
Silence after prayer is not emptiness.
It is the custody of surrender.
Night Temptations and Fear
Darkness can magnify fear.
The body is tired. Reason has less vigor. Old memories return. appear stronger because ordinary occupations no longer compete with them.
The pilgrim should not begin complex moral battles in bed.
Use simple weapons.
Invoke the Holy Name of Jesus.
Make the Sign of the Cross.
Turn from the image.
Repeat a Psalm or aspiration.
Ask the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, the guardian angel, and the saints.
If a practical concern can be written down, write it and release it. If danger is real, act . If fear is recurrent or severe, seek pastoral and appropriate professional help.
Do not interpret every involuntary thought as sin or every bodily sensation as a spiritual message.
The will can remain faithful amid noise.
Sleep as Surrender
Sleep is an act of creaturely poverty.
The pilgrim relinquishes awareness, control, work, defense, and reputation. Others continue without him. The world does not collapse because his eyes close.
He should receive sufficient sleep according to health and duty, neither idolizing comfort nor treating exhaustion as holiness.
Before sleep, commend the body and soul to God:
“Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy.”
Forgive.
Ask forgiveness.
Pray for the living and dead.
Entrust those loved but not controlled.
The act of lying down becomes an embodied confession of Providence.
The Christian rests because the Father watches.
Evening for the Sick and Night Worker
Not every day ends at night.
The nurse begins work when others sleep. The parent wakes repeatedly. Pain makes the boundary between day and night unclear. Insomnia prevents the expected surrender. The dying person may pass through a final night of watchfulness.
The rule follows the person's actual threshold.
The night worker can make an examination before the principal sleep. The caregiver may use a brief form between duties. The sick person may be capable only of the Holy Name and an act of trust.
God does not measure fidelity by the length of prayer when strength has been removed.
Nor should inability to sleep become an occasion for panic. Rest quietly, pray without strain, and seek medical help when insomnia persists.
The essential evening act can be one sentence:
“Jesus, I thank Thee, I am sorry, I forgive, and I place myself in Thy hands.”
The Particular Judgment
One evening will be the last.
At death, the time for meriting and choosing within earthly pilgrimage ends. Each soul receives its eternal retribution in the particular judgment, its life referred to Christ: entrance into heavenly blessedness, immediately or through purification, or everlasting damnation.[^25]
This doctrine gives the evening examination its gravity.
Salvation is the only final success.
A completed career cannot .
A clean house cannot substitute for .
Public honor cannot silence the judgment of Christ.
Nor can a lifetime of sin defeat mercy when brings the sinner to true repentance before death.
The pilgrim examines tonight because he does not know whether tomorrow is given.
He remains in .
He confesses grave sin.
He restores what belongs to another.
He forgives.
He keeps the lamp burning.
“Now Thou Dost Dismiss Thy Servant”
The Canticle of Simeon is the final posture of ordered time.
Simeon has received Christ.
Therefore he can depart in peace.
The Christian does not seek death from disgust with life. He receives life as vocation and death as the last surrender beneath Providence. He desires heaven because he desires God, while faithfully completing the duties that remain.
Each evening he practices this departure.
The work leaves his hands.
The household is entrusted.
The body enters helplessness.
The soul says: Thy word has been fulfilled today according to the measure of and my poor cooperation. Forgive what was sinful. Purify what was imperfect. Receive what was done in . Keep me through the night. If I wake, let me rise for Thee. If I die, receive me in mercy.
This is not morbid fear.
It is Christian readiness.
A Simple Evening Office
The pilgrim may keep this order:
- Enter the presence of God and make the Sign of the Cross.
- Give thanks for concrete graces received.
- Ask the Holy Ghost for light to know sin and to reject it.
- Review the day from waking to the present hour.
- Examine duties, acts, , intentions, and occasions.
- Distinguish from consent and venial from .
- Make an act of and resolve upon confession when needed.
- Determine , apology, correction, or removal of an occasion.
- Forgive injuries from the will and pray for offenders.
- Record tomorrow's first binding duty and surrender unfinished work.
- Pray Compline or a shorter night prayer.
- Enter silence and rest beneath Providence.
This should be thorough enough for truth and brief enough for perseverance.
The soul need not end every day with equal feeling.
It should end every day with faith.
For Meditation
- Can I place this actual day before God with gratitude and truth—confessing what I chose, forgiving what I suffered, repairing what I damaged, and surrendering what remains unfinished?
- Do I begin evening examination with God's gifts or with anxious measurement of myself?
- Which binding duties do my feelings most often conceal?
- Do I excuse chosen sin by calling it temptation—or accuse involuntary temptation as though it were consent?
- Is my conscience lax, scrupulous, or increasingly formed by truth?
- What sin requires sacramental confession?
- What harm requires restitution, correction, or apology?
- Whom must I forgive from the will before sleep?
- What unfinished work am I refusing to surrender to Providence?
- If this were my final evening, would I be ready to place my soul before Christ?
Rule for the Pilgrim
- Before sleep, return the day to God. Give thanks, ask light, examine duties and choices, make contrition, determine confession and repair, forgive from the will, and commend every unfinished work to Providence. End in prayer and silence, ready for judgment and eternity.
- Before sleep, return the actual day to God.
- Enter His presence. Give thanks. Ask light. Review duties and choices without concealment or exaggeration.
- Call mortal sin grave and venial sin dangerous. Do not call temptation consent or imperfection rebellion. Obey sound counsel where scrupulosity distorts judgment.
- Make contrition. Resolve upon confession. Restore what justice requires. Ask forgiveness. Forgive from the will without denying truth, safety, or lawful judgment.
- Prepare tomorrow prudently, then surrender it. Close the gates of attention. Pray the final office. Keep silence.
- Lie down as a creature beneath Providence and a sinner beneath mercy.
- Keep thy lamp burning, thy conscience honest, and thy soul ready for the judgment of Christ.
A companion for this lesson
Continue Your Formation
Read the Particular and General Examinations in The Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola, to end the day with gratitude, contrition, and definite amendment.
View the Pilgrim's Shelf →