Day 16 NOURISHMENT | 

Examen: A Light and Easy Practice {Practice}

 

I thank you for always being with me, but especially I am grateful that you are with me right now.

 

Let the Spirit enlighten my mind and warm my heart that I may know where and how we have been together this day.

 

Where have I felt your presence, seen your face, heard your word this day? Show me what was good for me today—what warmed my heart and brought a smile to my face as I remembered it? Where was I? What was I doing? Who was I with?

Where have I ignored you, run from you, perhaps even rejected you this day? Show me the places in my day that lacked a felt sense of love and belonging. What do I regret or wish didn’t happen? What desire arises when I remember? Do I want to ask God’s forgiveness? Do I want to ask where God was in it?

 

I thank you for all of the gifts of this day. I ask for healing and forgiveness for the times today when I wandered from your love.

 

I ask that you draw me even closer to you this day and tomorrow. 

As a spiritual director, I (Katie) recommend most often the prayer of Examen. For weary and burnt-out souls, it is a gentle and forgiving prayer practice that centers connection (with God and self) over outcomes. If you are unfamiliar with the prayer of Examen, let me introduce you.

 

When my kids were little, I asked at the dinner table, “What were your highs and lows from today?” (Or “What were your roses and thorns from today?”) High/low presupposes that there are ups and downs in every normal day, and every kind of story is welcome at the table. (As Fred Rogers is famous for saying, “What is mentionable is manageable.”)

 

The Examen assumes a similar idea: There is something both high and low to notice about your day. Examen (or Examination of Consciousness as some call it) is a prayer that provides a structure for you to reflect on the last 24 hours and pick out the highs and lows. Every kind of story is welcome in your recounting—God is able and willing to hold them all. In telling God the ups and downs, you get to know each other. The added gift of the Examen is that, as you explore your day, it draws you to the awareness of God’s presence, love, forgiveness, and support.

 

A Pocket Guide to Jesuit Education says it this way:

 

 

Praying the Examen requires nothing more from you than to have lived the last 24 hours. A light and easy glance at your day offers insight, connection, and hope. Over time, the information shared between you and God helps you discern more easily how God speaks to you, the direction God is leading you, and the things in your life that are life-giving and life-draining.