This week we continue our six week series of articles during Lent:
From Ashes to Glory: A Jesuit Way of Walking Through Lent:
ARTICLE 2 — Light
Praying for Light: Learning to See Truthfully
If gratitude grounds our Lenten journey, light gives it direction. Without light, Lent easily becomes either vague good intention or harsh self‑scrutiny. With light, it becomes something far more demanding and far more humane: a season of truth.
In the Jesuit tradition, the prayer for light is not a request for answers, explanations, or solutions. It is a plea for honesty — the grace to see ourselves, our lives, and our desires as God sees them. Neither indulgently nor cruelly. Neither defensively nor despairingly. Simply truthfully.
This movement follows gratitude for a reason. We do not ask for light until we have already recognised that our lives are held within God’s generosity. Only then can truth be faced without fear.
Why we resist seeing clearly
Most of us are more skilled at avoiding self‑knowledge than we care to admit. We distract ourselves with busyness, justify our reactions, or soften uncomfortable truths with careful explanations. We may even confuse self‑awareness with self‑criticism, and avoid both.
Lent invites something braver.
The Collects of the season repeatedly ask for honesty of heart: that we may “know ourselves”, “see ourselves as we are”, and be given grace to repent. The Church assumes that truth is not something we naturally choose. It must be prayed for.
Jesuit spirituality is refreshingly realistic here. St Ignatius of Loyola knew that we are often blind to our own motives, and deeply invested in maintaining a tolerable self‑image. That is why the Examen does not begin by analysing behaviour, but by asking God for light.
This prayer acknowledges a simple fact: self‑knowledge is a gift before it is a task.
The prayer for light in the Examen
After gratitude, the Examen moves to a brief, direct prayer:
“Lord, let me see.”
This is not a dramatic request. It is quiet and persistent. It asks for clarity, not condemnation. It trusts that God’s gaze is kinder than our own and more truthful than our excuses.
In practice, praying for light means asking for help to notice what actually shaped the day just lived:
what drew us closer to love
what narrowed us or hardened us
what stirred joy, peace, or generosity
what provoked anxiety, resentment, or withdrawal
Jesuit spirituality pays close attention to what Ignatius called interior movements. These are not distractions from the spiritual life; they are often its primary language. Feelings, desires, resistances, attractions, and aversions all tell us something about where our hearts are being drawn.
Peace and joy are not automatically signs of virtue. Anxiety and sadness are not automatically signs of failure. But attended to prayerfully, they reveal patterns — and patterns reveal truth.
Seeing patterns, not isolated faults
One of the great gifts of the Examen is that it resists the temptation to reduce the spiritual life to isolated moments of success or failure. Instead, it teaches us to notice patterns.
In Lent, this matters enormously.
Rather than asking, “What did I do wrong today?” the prayer for light encourages different questions:
Patterns reveal where conversion is needed — not in theory, but in practice.
This is why Jesuit spirituality insists that light must come before freedom. We cannot choose differently until we see honestly. Without light, repentance becomes superficial. With light, repentance becomes specific.
Light and the sacramental life
For an Anglo‑Catholic parish, this movement resonates deeply with the Church’s sacramental rhythm.
One of the traditional prayers of confession says:
“Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid…”
That prayer is already a prayer for light.
The Examen simply extends that posture into daily life. It prepares us for the Eucharist by teaching us to arrive truthfully. It deepens confession by making us more aware of what truly needs to be named. It sharpens our hearing of Scripture by attuning us to where it touches our lived experience.
Seen in this way, the Examen does not compete with the Church’s prayer. It supports and completes it.
Light without fear
One of the common fears about self‑examination is that it will lead to discouragement or self‑loathing. Jesuit spirituality is acutely aware of this danger.
Light, in this tradition, is never separated from mercy.
We do not pray for light in order to condemn ourselves. We pray for light because God already desires our healing. Nothing revealed in this prayer surprises God. Nothing discovered places us beyond grace.
Indeed, one of the signs that light is truly from God is that it leads not to despair, but to clarity and peace — even when what is seen is uncomfortable.
As the Church enters deeper into Lent, this kind of honesty becomes essential. Without it, we may engage in penitential practices without ever touching the heart. With it, even small acts of repentance become transformative.
Practising the prayer for light this week
During this second week of Lent, the Examen may be gently expanded. After gratitude, you might add one simple practice.
At the end of the day:
Become still in God’s presence
Give thanks for the day
Pray briefly for light: “Lord, help me see this day as you see it”
Recall the day slowly, noticing interior movements
Ask:
Stay with one moment that seems significant
End with trust in God’s mercy
There is no need yet to draw conclusions or make resolutions. That will come later. For now, the work is simply to see.
Light as preparation
The prayer for light does not stand alone. It prepares us for the next movement of the Jesuit Lenten journey.
As patterns become visible, another question naturally arises: Why do I keep choosing this? Or perhaps, Why do I avoid that?
These questions lead us toward freedom — not the freedom of self‑assertion, but the freedom of availability to God.
Next week, we will explore that third movement: freedom — learning what holds us, what loosens us, and how Lent gently trains the heart to choose life.
For now, the prayer remains simple and demanding:
Lord, let me see.
