The Examen
Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
July 31, 2019
Today is the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of
the Society of Jesus. Originally a young soldier of fortune seeking honor and
glory in war, but finding God and a call to be a peaceful “soldier for Christ” during
lengthy hospitalization for a severe war injury, Ignatius rooted much of his spiritual
life in the energetic use of the imagination.
The Spiritual Exercises, the
heart of the Ignatian Retreat, take as their ground the practice of vivid
mental recreation of passages of scripture after they have been read, with contemplatives
often seeing themselves as characters in the story. The
practice of Examen, the Examination
of Consciousness, as a daily practice also grounds itself in imagination.
The Daily Examen has basically five steps, which can be done
in as short as 20 minutes. 1) We begin
by asking God for light, since we want to see these things through God’s eyes,
not ours. 2) We continue by giving
thanks for the day that is past, and drawing a vivid mind picture of all the
good we enjoyed. 3) We then review the
day, looking carefully at what happened, paying particular attention to how we
felt about things, using what and how deeply we feel as points of entry into
what is going on inside us. Again, the
point is to try to get God’s viewpoint, not simply replay ours. 4) With clear images of the day and our feelings
before us, we then face what went wrong in the day, including our own
shortcomings. 5) Finally, we look
forward to the day to come with sincere petitions to God to help us in specific
areas in our lives.
I invite everyone to try Ignatian Examen as a regular practice,
whether you have not done so before, or perhaps set it aside for a season. I have found it very powerful, and believe it
might be useful to you. It does help
sort out feelings and attunes us to God’s call for us.
Grace and peace, Fr.
Tony+
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