God's Voice Within

This still remains one of my favorite books on discernment, and it is part of both my Body and Soul Companion Spiritual Direction Training (message me if you are interested in this Fall 2026 training) and Spiritual Exercises Ignatian Training. 

His writing is simple and easy to understand. I also like Elizabeth Liebert's book, The Way of Discernment: Spiritual Practices for Decision Making. That book has so many practical activities. Both are part of my spiritual direction training.  And both of these books are the foundation for my YouTube series: Decision Making & Discernment 

Here is the first one in a series of 18:

36. The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything

I did the online Creighton University Spiritual Exercises last year this time (the new one starts TODAY, in fact), but I loved reading this "encyclopedia" of all things Jesuit to give me an overall view of Ignatian Spirituality. It was fascinating. I don't agree with everything in it, but it has some wonderful things about finding God in all things, making decisions, discovering vocation, and surrendering all to God. I am a big proponent of the Spiritual Exercises for everyone (including evangelicals - very little is decidedly "Catholic" if you are afraid of that). My husband and I along with another couple will be doing the Exercises in Portland starting in six days (seelportland.org). It is such a great deal: prayer exercises every morning, meeting with a spiritual director two times a month, and a half day retreat in a gorgeous setting with other retreatants once a month for only $445!

Here is an National Public Radio with the author: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124357786?storyId=124357786

26. Just Call Me Lopez: Getting to the Heart of Ignatius Loyola

It is a rare thing to have the luxury of a totally free day to read a book, but yesterday was that kind of day after many weeks of having no free home days (if I was at home, I was writing a paper or preparing for something). I put this on Kindle text-to-speech and listened to it all day as I cleaned out my closet by switching my summer clothes in and my winter clothes out, (Yes, a month into summer and I finally got around to doing that - that is how busy I have been.) straightening out my clothing drawers, cleaning up the kitchen, doing a load of laundry, and putting away all my piles! Heaven to get my house in order after many weeks of disarray.

At first I thought it was somewhat contrived, but I got into the flow of it, and I enjoyed hearing his story told to a 21st century woman on her own journey. The author put a human face to Ignatius of Loyola. 

I love the Spiritual Exercises, and it was fun to get to know the man behind them.

60. A Simple Life-Changing Prayer by Jim Manney

The "Prayer of Examen" has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. I had done a modified version of it last fall when I read Beyond Loneliness by Trevor Hudson, and I posted a lot of my "Prayerful Reviews," and have done it sporadically, but after reading this book and also talking to my new spiritual director (who is the BOMB), Fran, I thought I would be more consistent with it, and it has been wonderful. 

I like to know the "why" behind all of this, and this book helps me understand it according to how St. Ignatius understood it. Manney gave me the freedom to do it the next morning rather than at the end of the day because I just don't have the energy, but I am an energizer bunny in the mornings! The EXAMEN is a great way to look at your day and bring God into every nook and cranny. 

All that to say, the EXAMEN is NOT for everyone, and I have had a quite vibrant prayer life without it! (My favorite prayer book is Kenneth Boa's masterful guided Scripture praying called Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship.) So do not feel like you will be GOOD if you do it. Some Intuitive people on the Myers-Briggs can find it difficult "recalling sins from the day." I guess that is why I like Trevor's take: "What was 'life-deadening' today?" Some of that might or might not be sin, but it gets you to think what might have been life-deadening first. 

Here is my adaptation of this book and Trevor's questions in a nifty two page handout:

A Prayerful Review and Examen

I quit posting my Prayerful Reviews here and started doing them at EXAMEN.me. (I am so open. I don't mind sharing them here (my sins for all the world to see), but I have the questions posed to me as I go through it instead of having to repost the questions here every time I do it.)  I really like this site because it also has some nifty reading plans. I am doing 30 Days with Jesus right now, and it has been so GOOD! 

Here is the button: 

 (They closed down the site :()