Steps 6-7 (Renewal, Closing)

Step 6: Renewal — "Lord, reveal to me what you ask of me tomorrow." Look ahead with openness. Step 7: Closing prayer — an Our Father, or simply "Thank you, Lord. I trust you with tomorrow." Three examens daily is ideal (morning: check your state; noon: mid-day review; evening: full review), but start with one. Examine against: capital sins, Ten Commandments, theological virtues, works of mercy. (Ep 590, 641)

To appreciate the full significance of this teaching, it helps to situate it within the broader framework of the Catholic spiritual tradition. The great masters of the interior life — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Ignatius of Loyola — each brought their distinctive charism and experience to bear on questions like this one. Their convergent testimony, spanning centuries and diverse vocations, gives this teaching a depth and authority that goes far beyond any single author's perspective.

Understanding "steps 6-7 (renewal, closing)" requires attending to both its doctrinal foundations and its practical implications. The Catholic tradition insists that authentic spiritual knowledge is never merely theoretical — it must be tested in prayer, refined through experience, and ultimately verified by its fruits in the life of the soul. This is why the Church's greatest teachers on the spiritual life are not only theologians but saints — men and women who lived what they taught, and whose writings carry the authority of verified experience.

At the same time, the tradition is careful to anchor experiential testimony in sound doctrine. The Doctors of the Church do not simply report their own experiences; they interpret those experiences in light of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church's magisterial teaching. This integration of experience and doctrine is one of the defining characteristics of Catholic spiritual theology, and it is what gives the tradition its remarkable combination of depth and reliability.

The richness of the tradition becomes apparent when we listen to the voices of the masters themselves. Each brings a distinctive perspective to this teaching, yet all converge on its essential truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

The event, He says, is now at hand, it is approaching your very doors. The words, true worshipers, are by way of distinction: for there are false worshipers, who pray for temporal and frail benefits, or whose actions are ever contradicting their prayers. CHRYS. Or by saying, true, he excludes the Jews together with the Samaritans. For the Jews, though better than the Samaritans, were yet as much.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

TERESA ont nor did I think it right—for this writing, if ever he should see it, will not be shown him for a long time—to refrain from speaking of one who has rendered such great services in the renewal of the primitive rule ; for, though he was not the first to make a beginning, he came in due time, for I should have been occasionally sorry that the reform had been begun if my trust in the mercy.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

St. John of the Cross writes:

The perfect guidance of faith is lessened; because the experience of sense derogates from faith ; for faith, as I have said, surpasseth all sense, and thus the soul, by not closing its eyes against every object of sense, turns away from the means of union with God. ii. They are hindrances in the way of the spirit, if they are not rejected ; for the soul rests upon them,.

(Source: ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt)

St. Francis de Sales writes:

But I must tell you, before closing this part of my subject, that the denial which S.

(Source: 03_catholic_controversy.txt)

St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

When he arrived at Montserrat, he passed a long time in prayer, and with the consent of his confessor he made in writing a general confession of his sins. Three whole days were employed in this undertaking.

(Source: autobiography_oconor_1900.txt)

The Church Fathers writes:

And they came to the house of the young man who had committed the deed. There, before the door, was a lad so young as not to refrain from disclosing the whole through the fear of injuring his master. For he had followed his master to the market-place. Whom, so soon as Alypius recognised, he intimated it to the architect; and he,.

(Source: Confessiones_english.txt)

The Catechism (PD) writes:

"I consider it a most useful if not necessary book, not only for Sunday school teachers and for advanced classes, but for all who may desire to have a clear, definite knowledge of Christian doctrine."

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

But why when He is going to heal the impotent, to raise the dead, to calm the sea, does He not pray, but here does give thanks? To teach us to give thanks to God, whenever we sit down to eat. And He prays more in lesser matters, in order to show that He does not pray from any motive of need.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

The Church's doctrinal tradition provides authoritative grounding for this teaching. Proposition T3.M.004 (sententia_certa) states:

Mary was endowed with a singular fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, surpassing the grace given to any angel or saint. The angelic salutation "full of grace" signifies a unique and superabundant plenitude of sanctifying grace befitting the Mother of God.

• Aquinas: ['The Blessed Virgin had a greater fulness of grace than any other saint; for the nearer a thing is to its cause, the more it receives of the...
• Fathers: ['Hail, thou that art full of grace!

Additionally, proposition T3.M.012 (de_fide) affirms: The veneration given to the Blessed Virgin Mary — called hyperdulia, a degree of honour above that given to other saints (dulia) — is fitting, proper, and in accord with Christian faith. It is essentially distinct from the worship of latria, which is due to God alone.

For the engaged learner, understanding "steps 6-7 (renewal, closing)" opens a path to deeper prayer and more fruitful cooperation with grace. The sources cited above show that this is not abstract theology but a lived reality that has shaped the spiritual lives of countless saints and ordinary Christians across two millennia.

The practical challenge is to take this teaching into one's own prayer and daily life. This might begin with reflective reading of one or more of the sources quoted above, followed by prayerful consideration of how this teaching applies to one's current spiritual situation. The tradition consistently emphasises that spiritual growth comes not from accumulating information but from allowing truth to penetrate the heart through prayer, sacramental life, and faithful practice.

As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, the devout life is possible in every state — what matters is not extraordinary circumstances but extraordinary love applied to ordinary duties. This teaching invites precisely that kind of response: a deepening of one's relationship with God through understanding and practice, sustained by the rich resources of the tradition.