Video summary

The Particular Examen

Main summary

Key takeaways

Wellness and Self-Improvement

Key wellness / self-care / productivity strategies

Commit to ongoing self-improvement (structured, gradual)

  • Use a yearly practice to address one vice/imperfection at a time, rather than trying to change everything at once.
  • Frame the process as:
    • Growth in virtue
    • Disciplined recovery from faults

Use a daily “Particular Examen” (Ignatian-style)

  • Purpose: target one specific fault and replace it with the related virtue.
  • Timing:
    • Run it in the morning
    • Run it after dinner
    • Optional: add additional check-ins

Morning “Determination” (set the intention for the day)

When you rise, make a clear decision to guard against one specific sin/defect.

Include:

  • Offer yourself to God for the day
  • Recall past faults connected to the vice/virtue you’re working on
  • Renew your resolution with focus and seriousness (a “holy war” tone)
  • Seek the grace/help of God, optionally including prayers to:
    • Mary
    • Your guardian angel
    • Patron saint(s)
    • Relevant saints

Quality guidelines for the resolution:

  • Definite: specific behavior (not vague “be better”)
  • Discreet: not overly ambitious in scope
  • Steadfast
  • Humble: not reliance on self alone
  • Daily increasing: grow toward deeper virtue over time

Throughout the day: “Watchfulness”

  • Actively monitor your behavior and triggers to stay aligned with the morning resolution.
  • When tempted:
    • Ask God for grace
    • Use intercession (the saints/prayers you planned that morning)
    • Recall motivations that make the chosen good action more likely
  • If you fail:
    • Make a small penance (traditional suggestion: small physical gesture + brief prayer)
    • Optionally jot a quick note to remember what to do next

Midday / Evening “Examination” (audit your performance)

  • Check whether you kept the resolution.
  • Traditional timing: noon and/or before bed
    • Subtitles often recommend adding noon if helpful.

Traditional 5-part structure:

  1. Ask for light (discern honestly; renew contrition)
  2. Review transgressions by hour (not as the central goal)
  3. Consider causes of the sin
  4. Generate sorrow/contrition and exhort yourself against the behavior
  5. Renew the resolution
  • Optional: use penance to reinforce change.

“Comparison” over time (measure progress like a productivity system)

  • Track improvement day by day (and sometimes week to week) with simple counts, such as:
    • Number of failures in the morning vs. afternoon
    • Weekly totals for comparison
  • Use tracking to:
    • Encourage growth
    • Detect stagnation (may warrant retreat/spiritual direction/re-examination)
    • Confirm when a vice is weakened enough to move to the next target

Choose the “matter”: one particular vice or virtue

  • The practice works best when you focus on a single specific fault, not “virtue in general.”
  • Use “divide and conquer”:
    • Break the vice into parts (acts, words, thoughts)
    • Address them stepwise

Use an ordered strategy for what to fix first

Suggested priority order:

  • Mortal sin / habitual serious wrongdoing first
  • Then deliberate venial sins
  • Address outward acts before inward motions
  • Then focus on other vice categories (often prioritizing carnal over spiritual)

Optional beginner sequence (sometimes presented as the “seven/eight,” flexible by author/person):

  • Gluttony, Lust, Covetousness, Anger, Melancholy, Sloth, Vanity/Pride

Stay with one target until it’s meaningfully weakened

  • Don’t jump too quickly between many faults.
  • Continue until the vice is sufficiently “disarmed” that it no longer strongly hinders you.
    • Complete eradication isn’t expected in this life.

Match stage-appropriate virtues to your level

  • Beginners: cultivate solitude
  • Proficients: humility + poverty of spirit
  • More perfect: prayer and contemplation to deepen union with God

Presenters or sources mentioned

Presenter / narrator

  • Christian B. Wagner

Editing / collaborator

  • Unionist Initiative

Spiritual authors / sources referenced

  • Bible: Deuteronomy 7:21–22
  • St. Basil
  • St. Augustine
  • St. Anthony
  • St. Bernard
  • St. Bonaventure
  • St. John Cassian
  • St. Jerome
  • St. Thomas Aquinas
  • St. Ignatius of Loyola
  • St. Peter Faber
  • Father Alfonso Rodriguez
  • Father Luis De la Palma
  • Father Rodriguez (again, referenced for duration guidance)
  • Father Bisi (Solid Virtue, part two, chapter 5)
  • Plutarch
  • Epictetus
  • Sena / Seneca (subtitles appear as “Sena”; likely Seneca)
  • Desert Fathers (source category)
  • Medieval spiritual masters (source category)

Original video