An Augustinian Examen
The Augustinian Examen is a tool for reflection offered to our community. When used frequently and consistently, ideally every day, the Examen is a powerful way to come to an awareness of who we are becoming as we live our lives and navigate through our experiences.
About the Examen
This Examen, based on the spirituality of St. Augustine, invites us to consider six themes as we reflect on our daily experience: journey, gratitude, humility, compassion, generosity, and love.
By asking ourselves each day where we are, for what we are grateful, how we have been humbled, for whom we experienced compassion and empathy, how we were generous, and what we loved (that to which we gave the majority of our time, attention, thoughts, and feelings), we are able to assess whether or not we are becoming the persons we really would like to be. Regular use of this Examen will invite us to deepen our gratitude, embrace our humility, heighten our compassion and empathy for others, and empower our generous sharing of what we have received. We will be able to assess the worthiness of the values we are pursuing and the direction of our life’s journey.
Campus Ministry offers this Augustinian Examen not only for the personal growth and well being of each individual, but also in the hope of our campus community becoming a more grateful, humble, compassionate, generous, and loving place.
Hardcopies of the Examen
In addition to the electronic copy of “An Augustinian Examen” linked above, card-stock hardcopies are freely available in the Chapel of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Austin Hall, the Grace J. Palmisano Center for Campus Ministry, SAK 350, the Information Desk on the first floor of the Sakowich Campus Center and in McQuade Library. If you would like one or more copies delivered to you, email augustinianexamen@merrimack.edu with your campus mail address and we will happily send them to you.
Meet with Campus Ministry
If you would like one of the members of the Campus Ministry Staff to meet with your department, team, office, club, or group of any kind, to give more complete instructions on how to use the Examen, please reach out to us. For this or any other questions or comments about the Examen, send an email to augustinianexamen@merrimack.edu.
The Restless Hearts Podcast
Another way to learn more about An Augustinian Examen is to check out several episodes of our podcast. The Restless Hearts Podcast is dedicated to introducing and guiding listeners through the Examen (Episode 6) and reflecting more deeply on each of the six themes of the Examen (Episodes 7–12). Subscribe to our podcast, or follow the links below to stream episodes online.
- EPISODE 6: An Augustinian Examen—The Audio Guide
- EPISODE 7: The Augustinian Theme of “Journey”
- EPISODE 8: Becoming More Intentionally Grateful
- EPISODE 9: The Way of Humility, Humility, and Humility
- EPISODE 10: Compassion Begins at Home
- EPISODE 11: How Generosity Brings Us Home
- EPISODE 12: From “Being in love with loving” to “Being loved by Love”
