Session 1: The Examen

The Examen

and the JustFaith Programme “Finding God in all Things” The Word of God is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for your observance. See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster...Choose life.

(Dt 30:14, 15, 19) Some background information: The Examen is a popular way of praying and was developed by St. Ignatius Loyola. (1491-1556). St. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits).

He suggested that his brothers undertook a daily way of praying by examining their lives so they could better serve God. St.Ignatius stated that the key to a healthy spirituality was to find God in all things and work constantly to gain freedom in your life in order to cooperate with God’s will.

This daily exercise he called the Examen and he suggested that it should be prayed twice daily– with the practice allowing people to hear God in their hearts and with the daily practice be able to discern God’s will for them in their lives. Making time for prayer allows you to fully feel God’s presence in your life and enter into a deeper more intimate conversation with Jesus.

There a 5 simple steps and the prayer can be made anywhere.

The Examen is a simple prayer, a prayer for busy people who are continually seeking to do God’s will.

Begin your prayer just by calming things down a little bit. Become conscious of yourself, your breath, your presence, who you are.

The First Part is to remember that you are in the presence of God. This follows on from the ‘calming moment’ you took at the very start of your prayer. We are always in the presence of God but in prayer we place ourselves in God’s presence in a particular way.

So take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to help you look at your life with love this day.

The Second Part is to look at your day with gratitude. Begin by looking at your day with a sense of gratitude giving thanks to God for the day. What happened today that seemed like a gift to you? Just take some time to notice what you have received and what you gave today. As you complete the review of your gifts and the particular gifts of the day, pause to thank God for all of these.

The Third Part is to ask help from the Holy Spirit.

Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and help you look at your actions clearly with an understanding of your limitations. Do not judge what comes to you.

Just become conscious of how you responded to things that happened, people that encountered and moments in our life this day. This is really just a gentle look with the Lord on how you have responded to God’s gifts.

The Fourth Part is a more detailed review your day and is the longest of the steps. So you literally review your whole day, playing it in your mind like a little movie. Really try to notice the details, the context of what happened today, how you active, what you saw and said and did. It’s important to also take some time to examine a little your own motives and feelings. How were you today in the various things that happened? Why did you do what you did? How did the things you did make you feel? How did others make you feel.

The next part of this fourth stage is to look at

moments when you didn’t perhaps feel at your best.

What were the moments when there was a barrier to God’s presence? It might be worth asking yourself how conscious you were of God’s presence and actions in your life. Maybe, instead of putting God at the centre, your own ego or fear were there instead?

Take a moment to be honest about this with yourself in prayer. It isn’t about ‘beating yourself up’ but rather about being really truthful with yourself.

The next part of this fourth Stage is to look at the moments of the day when you loved. Remember the day for the moments where you gave something of yourself to another; where you perhaps went the extra mile or really reached out to someone? Remember also moments in the day when someone went the extra mile for you. Just pause for a moment with those memories; grateful for them as signs of God’s love working in your own life.

In all of the above, try to start to notice habits and patterns emerging. This ‘noticing’ takes place over days and weeks of doing the Examen. Can you, as you reflect on the day, see where you felt alive and felt less alive. These patterns of reacting and acting are what take us closer to or away from God. Take a moment to reflect on whether or not there are specific people bringing you down or causing you to be negative?

Who or what was giving you life?

Ask yourself if there were moments when you could have accepted more help from Christ; when you could have allowed God’s love for you to be at the centre of all that you did. It is about trying to see how all that is maybe more negative in our lives can be redeemed in and through the love God has for me.

This part of stage four is really about allowing yourself become more sensitive to God working in and through your life. God is in all things and this whole prayer is about helping you realise this.

Finally, for this fourth stage, take a moment to see other forms of God’s presence in your life. This could be through your experiences of your parish or your experience of Eucharist or your experience of scripture, or indeed your experience of nature. It might be just a very simple thing or something bigger. Just pause with it and be grateful once again.

The Fifth Stage is about reconciling and resolving and thinking of tomorrow.

As your Examen comes to an end imagine Jesus sitting beside you. Maybe there is something you feel you didn’t handle very well —now is the time to tell Jesus you are sorry and ask Him to be with you the next time a similar situation arises. It is equally important to remember all the good things. For example, you might thank the Lord for being with you when you avoided a wrong choice. It’s important that you really try to feel the sorrow in your heart when you apologise but also the gratitude when you give thanks for God’s gentle work inside your heart.

In this part you might also spend a moment praying about your needs for tomorrow? Ask for God’s help and guidance so that you can grow closer to God and become a gentler person to yourself and more loving to others.