Christians are called to show mercy and to enact, through our physical, ordinary lives, God’s compassion for those who suffer and forgiveness for those who have caused harm. However, we tend to express well and pass along only what we have experienced personally. We do better if we have examples to follow, models of the behavior and attitudes we want to manifest in ourselves. So if we hope to be merciful, we might begin with a particular type of Examen prayer: reviewing the mercy we have experienced or witnessed.
Step 1: Quiet your mind and heart, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your vision and understanding.
Step 2: Look back on various periods of your life—childhood, school days, young adulthood, decades of work and career (It might be easiest to focus on just one of those periods.)—and identify an occasion when someone acted mercifully toward you. That person forgave a misdeed or gave you room to improve or stepped in to help you in a difficult or uncomfortable situation.
Step 3: Once you’ve identified this occasion, dwell there in your imagination and memory. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your remembrance the gentle tone of voice, or the
