The spiritual discipline of Examen is an ancient spiritual
practice that can be found in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and
was often used in the early Church. The practice of Examen is taking time to
pause and reflect on the events of the day. Did you detect God’s presence
during the day? Did you get a sense of God’s direction for you? What emotions
did/are you having today? What can you let go of?
I read a book called Sleeping
with Bread by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn exploring
the spiritual practice of Examen. I was drawn to their practice of sitting as a
family at the end of the day and asking the questions “What am I most grateful
for?” and “What am I least grateful for?”
I decided to set my phone alarm to go off at 8:30 p.m. each
evening. When the alarm goes off across the screen of my phone it says “What am
I most grateful for? What am I least grateful for?” The first night it went
off, my husband and I were walking out to the car from shopping. It sparked a
good conversation between us. The reminder alarm caused us to pause and really
examine our day. We had so many
blessings that day that might have gone unnoticed if we had not been reminded
to pause and remember.
Perhaps you will find the spiritual discipline of Examen a
good practice to remind you of all the ways God is right there in your every
day, ordinary life.
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