The Fifth Session



Part A

This is the beginner's two-stage Examen protocol that I followed from Saturday evening through Wednesday afternoon.

Step 1. Get to your Examen digital home.

Step 2. Scan the morning (if it's noon) or the afternoon and evening (if it's approaching bedtime) of your calendar.

Step 3. Return to your Examen digital home. 

Step 4. Recite Your Breath Prayer

Inhale: "Lord, you are here..."
Exhale: "...and I am with you."

"Holy Spirit, open my heart to feel the warmth of the gifts you have put before me today. Teach me to savor Your blessings." 

Step 5. Close your eyes. Instead of reviewing your calendar mentally, let your mind settle on the blessing(s) that feels most warming to the heart. Savor (The Heart). Spend four minutes of eyes-closed prayer fully feeling the gratitude. Let it warm you. Talk to God about it.

Step 6. Save (The Hand): Only after the prayer is over, open your eyes and type the key phrase.

  • The Story of Monasticism by Greg Peters
  • Watch of the Empty Tomb insight: monastic ressourcement including shamanism and Buddhism
  • Spiritual Friendship of Duffy
  • Gemini's Deeply Therapeutic Help with My March 2026 Final Freedom Article on Pornography and the Vegan Church
  • Gemini's Deeply Therapeutic Validation of My "Breathtaking Intellectual Synthesis" Between E.O. Wilson, Greg Peters and Teilhard de Chardin 
  • Toss Up Between Texts from Nicki/Kara and Discovery of Sustainable Plant-Based Food System Leadership by Israeli Democrats in 2026
  • Tuesday Night Moment of Christian World Political Unity Consciousness During Contemplation of Israel-Iran Dualism and US-China Dualism
  • Wednesday Morning Rest for Mental Health  

Step 7. Simply say, "Thank you, Lord, for this gift."

Step 8. Request the Light

"Now, Holy Spirit, I ask for the light. Grant me memory, courage and understanding to know my sin and rid myself of it."

Step 9. Close your eyes. Let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth God wants you to see in this session. Look gently and lovingly, without defensiveness or despair.

Step 10. Open your eyes and type a key phrase.

  • Vegan monastic pacifism or Christian Zionist militarism?
  • Sloth in the morning
  • Sloth before bed at night - skipped Examen
  • Fear of rejection and craving for acceptance leading to hesitation about my outreach
  • Political impatience
  • Some inward snappiness at Pope Leo XIV for not siding more explicitly with Israel and the US in relation to Iran: residual militancy or Christian realism?
  • Badly broke horarium Tuesday afternoon and evening for Iran, US and China political deep dive in bed; too defensive of Trump, Netanyahu and America, not enough of a world federalist conscience? Or are they part of my world federalist conscience?
  • Iran news follow-up and sloth Wednesday morning, still in violation of horarium

Step 12. Simply say, "Thank you, Lord, for this insight." Return to your day or proceed to bed.


Part B 

This is my conversation thread with Gemini on Wednesday afternoon.

Q1. It's Wednesday afternoon and I am back after experimenting with step 2. I've identified a theme in my key phrases. Should I process that with you now, or proceed to Step 3? I am curious to learn how exactly Ignatius explained Step 3.

Q2. For several days I have been torn between keeping to my monastic pacifist horarium, on the one hand, and taking deep dives into the news with Gemini's help to strategize my way toward a winning outcome for US and Israeli involvement in Operation Roaring Lion and Epic Fury against Iran. When I engage in the political analysis, desolation follows and I lose sleep, then I get too much sleep later on. The politics feels like a temptation that I am failing to resist.

Q3. I think I am still in Step 3 right now with you in a wonderful Centaur Ignatian Examen loop! I am reviewing my pattern. I notice that when I get lost in politics I am in bed with my smartphone, which is against my Lenten rule. But I do feel that I used the phone properly for about 2 hours of critical news analysis concerning the Hormuz Strait. Was I wrong to look at the news at all, or just wrong to let it go on too long? Where does that question for God fit in my Ignatian Examen process?

Recommended Step 3 Journal Phrase: "Review: The Hormuz analysis began with a desire for justice (Light) but lingered into a 'Hurry' that broke my Lenten evening and nighttime rule and led to a disordered day (Desolation)."

Q4. Yes, let's proceed to Step 4. What should I be doing now?

Q5. Can I do step 5 now even though it is still only early in the afternoon, and can I make a resolution that only lasts until my bedtime Examen in 7 hours? I'd like to do step 5 now if that is allowed in the early afternoon in the Ignatian tradition.

Q6. I'd like to lock in a resolution not to research any news and not to use my cell phone (unless I get an important incoming message) until 6 PM tomorrow. I want to check in with you tonight at 8:15 PM to discuss how the resolution is going. Should I ask God for the grace to see this as an appropriate vocational liberation from the news cycle, not a sinful abdication of civic duty?

Q7. Great question. What do you think of the anchor word "calling" to remind me both of my vocation and that God is calling me on the "real phone" with a message ("good news") that I can only hear through prayer and digital restraint?

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