Spiritual Discipline: Prayer of Examen

Here is an important prayer exercise that can help you navigate these strange days. It is called the Prayer of Examen and is meant to help you experience Jesus in your life. It is not meant to point you to what when wrong in your day or even what went right.  It is to help you notice where you saw God, where you served God and maybe where you missed or even avoided God and God’s call on your life.  It is meant to help you notice the movements of the Holy Spirit in your soul and to ready yourself to respond to that. This prayer can be done in five minutes or you might spend an hour.  It might be done on a walk or it could be in a journal. There are five steps to this Ignatian spiritual exercise: 1.  Thanksgiving Take a moment to give thanks to God for what you experienced today.  What are you grateful for during this day?  This might be something good that happened or it might be simply that this day has finally ended and we have a new chance at a new day tomorrow.  No matter what your day looked like, find a way to start the prayer with gratitude. 2.  Petition for Light Ask for the Holy Spirit to bring light into your life to allow you to see what God wants you to see. 3.  Review of God’s Presence/Absence The purpose of this part of the prayer is to look back on your day and see what God wants you to see. What happened in the day?  What were your responses (actions, feelings, urges, reactions) to the opportunities and challenges that presented themselves to you.  Did these lead you and others to God or distract you.  Here are some prompts that can help you reflect:

• Where have I felt joy?
• What has troubled me?
• What has challenged me?
• Where have I noticed God’s presence?
• What have I learned?
• Who have I loved/served today?
• Who have I missed?

When we are in times of disorientation it is good to have some standard questions that we ask ourselves to evaluate our day.  You can make these questions yourself based on what you feel called to do with your life.  These are ones that came to mind for me because they are centered in my values… relationships, continued learning, serving others, living in joy.  What are your questions?  Your values?   Your calling?  Use that to determine what you want to reflect upon. 4.  Response Take a moment to examine your response to God.  Ask for forgiveness if necessary, but don’t dwell on your mistakes.  Listen. Celebrate. 5.  A Look Ahead In light of my review, what is my response to the God of my life?  What have you learned today about yourself that you would like to put into practice going forward?  Anticipate the day tomorrow, what you would like to see and what you fear, ask God to help prepare your heart for what lies ahead.  Ask God to continue to show you love so that you can be a witness to God’s marvelous grace.

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