The following prayer brings together an Ignatian consideration of the coming day and the traditional encircling prayer (called a caim). The specific prayers within this exercise are taken from Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica.

1. Focus on this present moment and allow all other concerns or problems to fade from your consciousness. Then, become aware of your desire to know the fullness of God's love for you — and to feel his continuing compassion and guidance — as you quietly affirm God’s redemptive presence in you and in the world around you.

2. Consider your life. Bring to mind the times when you do not reflect God's goodness, the times when you squander or misuse the gifts he has given to you, and the times when you feel abandoned by God. Become aware of your desire to live in God's goodness as well as your desire to properly use the many gifts he has given you.

3. Pray for the grace to see God's action in your life more clearly, to understand his desires for you more accurately, to respond to his guidance to you more generously. Pray also that others in the world might see, understand and respond to God's guidance in their lives.

4. Now, imagine the coming day, seeing God's love enfolding and encircling every situation. Feel God's love touch you in the depths of your being, expressing his desire to share his creation with you in the coming day. Ask God to bless your day, the people and creatures you will meet in it, and those who are close to your heart.
• Then, see God in all the events and people of the coming morning. Feel his loving presence surrounding, protecting and guiding you as you imagine the moments when you expect to be alone during this morning and when you expect to be with other people. Feel God’s love pervade your home, your work and your travels as you ask him to encircle the events and people of this morning with his love, saying:
The compassing of God be on you,
The compassing of the God of life.
• Imagine the events and people of the coming midday. Again, feel God's presence surrounding, protecting and guiding you as you see the moments when you expect to be alone and when you expect to be with other people. As you ask him to encircle the events and people of this midday with his love, saying:
The compassing of Christ be on you,
The compassing of the Christ of love.
• Envision the coming afternoon, seeing God’s presence in the times when you are alone and when you are with others. Hear his voice speak to you in all these events and people as you ask God to encircle them with his love, saying:
The compassing of Spirit be on you,
The compassing of the Spirit of Grace.
• Finally, see the coming evening. Feel God’s love pervade the moments when you expect to be alone and when you expect to be with other people before asking him to encircle them with his love, saying:
The compassing of the Three be on you,
The compassing of the Three preserve you,
The compassing of the Three preserve you.

5. As you allow these images to ebb and flow in your consciousness, make a mental note of your emotional responses to the people and events you expect to encounter during the coming day, quietly affirming your desire to live in God's goodness. Then, become aware of your need for God's continuing care and guidance so you may properly use the many gifts he has given you in these circumstances — and in the unexpected events of this day.

6. When you are ready, conclude by offering this traditional prayer:
God, bless to me the new day,
Never vouchsafed to me before;
It is to bless your own presence
You have given me this time, O God.
Bless my eyes,
may my eyes bless all they see;
I will bless my neighbor,
May my neighbor bless me.
God, give me a clean heart,
let me not from sight of your eye. Amen.

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