Do you ever feel like life is just so…ordinary…or…incosequential?
Some days I feel the awe and wonder of what it means to be alive, amazed by the creation and touched that God would call me beloved.
And then other days I’m in disbelief, thinking where God in all of this is?
A wise spiritual guide of mine once spoke to me in this place with a quote:
God comes to us disguised as your real life
Paula D’Arcy
If God is involved in every detail of our lives, I am unaware of most of them. I need to be active in reflecting on my day to see signs of God’s presence.
There is a prayer in Christian spirituality called The Examen, taught by St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits. While he popularised the practice, apparantly, in came from Ancient Stoics.
The unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates
While this ancient wisdom that has stood the test of time, I have only come to realize its power in the last year and especially the last couple of months.
What is the Examen?
St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) advised taking 15-20 mins, twice a day, to pray the Examen. In his book The Spiritual Exercises he writes the five steps as:
The First Point is to give thanks to God, our Lord, for the benefits I have received.
The Second is to ask grace to know my sins and to rid myself of them.
The Third is to ask an account of my soul from the hour of rising to the present examen, hour by hour or period by a period; first as to thoughts, then words, then deeds, in the same order as was given for the particular examination.
The Fourth is to ask pardon of God our Lord for my faults.
The Fifth is to resolve, with his grace, to amend them. Close with an Our Father.
Modern Interpretations of The Examen
Put simply, The Examen is a way of reviewing the day in God’s presence. The lens of focus can change and you can review other areas of your life of other periods of your life.
There are countless ways to approach The Examen. Here are a few resources for you to try.
Fuller Seminary produced this video that walks you through the five steps. I enjoyed the video but also wrote out the prayer found on this page, in a small notebook. I can flick through the pages as I move through the prayer prompts.
Rummaging For God is a great article that likens looking for God in your day, like rummaging through a desk drawer, looking for a familiar item.
Reimagining the Ignatian Examen is a book that gives many different ways to pray The Examen, including one on decision making. There is also an app of the same name that makes it easy to flick through the steps. They have been a handful of times that I have had profound spiritual experiences using this app.
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O my strength,
I will watch for you,
for you, O God,
are my fortress.
Psalm 59:9
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