The Examen - An Ignatian Practice


       As promised, here are some ideas for your practice of The Examen which can transform and deepen your spiritual life. I've done a lot of study about this spiritual discipline and have practiced it intermittently for the past few decades. The suggestions below are just that; options for how you might wish to practice the prayer.  May it bring you joy day-by-day in 2013 and beyond.

  • Take a moment to remember you are beloved of God, just as you are.  There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God.

  • Remember and give thanks for the gifts that God's love has bestowed upon you today; sunshine, friendship, an answered prayer, strength for a challenge, daily bread, etc.

  • Ask God for a blessing that will make this prayer time more than a human endeavor; then watch for an insight that comes not from within you neither heart nor mind, but from above.

  • Trusting in God's love, review the past 24 hours.  What were the thoughts, wonderings, insights or ponderings that God bestowed.  What were the thoughts that came from someplace else?  How did you respond to Divine and other promptings?

  • With the past 24 hours in perspective, we seek the mercy of God's forgiveness, from the only one who can offer us healing.  God hears the prayer of those who seek Him and heals us.

  • Filled with the joy of being made whole, we make plans for tomorrow and how we'll live more purposely in the Light of God's Love. 
 
  • Bathed in the Spirit of peace, we conclude our prayer. 
       Some folks do The Examen as a mental prayer while others choose to practice it as a journaling prayer.  Again, there's no right way. I've planned to begin the New Year with The Examen --once more making it a daily exercise and invite you to join me and tens of thousands of others who use it this way.  God Bless you and those you love in 2013 with Hope, Peace and Joy.

Kathleen Bronagh* Weller
THE CELTIC MONK
 
*For those of you who know my middle name is Lee... please see the 2011 Ireland Blogs that will tell about St. Bronagh -- and the 2010 blog regarding my Final Vows as a Benedictine Oblate where I
chose that name.   

   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giving Up the Farm or Farewell to Farmville

It was last fall that I finally answered an invitation on Facebook... the social networking website, to play Farmville... a social networking game. How fun I thought, that rather than playing solitaire or mahjong by myself, I would play Farmville and be able to catch up with friends at the same time. What could be better? I was brand new to the world wide web of all things electronically social and it appeared to be a simplest of avenues to keep in the loop. I’d have a small interaction with friends and acquaintances from miles away as I decompressed from my day. What better way to spend 10 minutes than with that 6” x 6” plot of flat screen soil while sending and receiving trees, chickens, fences and lambs with friends. It even felt familiar, this sensation of a momentary connection. I remembered that when Sean was two and just getting his own little sense of self he practiced a ritual of comfort as he took those first steps of independence. He would make a foray into another room,
Read more

Hope as a Verb

Image
HOPE Is there a difference for you between a wish, a hope or a dream?  I know I sometimes use those words interchangeably in a fanciful way:  I wish I was going on vacation... I hope I am going on vacation... I am dreaming of being on vacation! But when matters are more serious, or even grave...do I still use these words as if they meant the same thing?  I wish I didn't need surgery... I hope I don't need surgery... I dreamt I did not need surgery?  [I have no surgery planned]  No, I don't use these words in the same way when speaking of something more consequential, more serious. In a conversation yesterday with sister spiritual directors, one of them related something she'd heard over the weekend and that she was still in the process of unpacking and wondering about.  Her little something also captured my attention so, that it bubbled up first thing this morning.  At a conference from which she's just returned, the speaker offered this seemingly simple
Read more

An Invitation

Image
AN INVITATION    7:30 a.m and 7:30 p.m.  What was the last thing you were invited to attend?  I don't mean the herd invitation... everyone is invited. I mean the personal invitation as in I'd be so happy if you would join me, or come with me, or come and see... Most of us are invited often to be part of a crowd.  Come to the spaghetti supper!  Come to the Farmer's Market!  Come to the Strawberry Festival, the Film Festival, the ... well you can just fill in the blank. I am writing to invite you to a very small gathering.  I am writing to invite you to an event where you and I will be the only visible participants.  I am writing to invite you to meet me (every morning at 7:30 a.m. EDST and every evening at 7:30 p.m. EDST) for a journey into your relationship with God which, as it turns out, ends up being a journey not only towards God, but towards yourself and into every relationship in your life. I am calling this time a retreat... because the content when added
Read more