Hi there,
This is Lee for our last day together putting all the steps of the Examen prayer together.
So what I'm gonna do today is just take you through each one of the steps equally.
We've spent a lot of time exploring them and I'm gonna invite you to do something that I think really brings the Examen into the practical way that it's prayed and that's to pause at any point of these steps.
As I take you through,
Pause.
Here's one of the things I mentioned way back when we when we did the first day that for Ignatius who gave us this Examen prayer,
One of his kind of rules or his ideas was wherever I experience grace that's where I stop.
In other words that's where I stop and settle into it.
That's where I sit into it.
That's where I give into it right because the Examen is this opportunity for us to see again how we are participating in this love song of life.
So if any one of these steps there's a moment where you're like I feel the flood of grace or this really connects for me or this you feel your mind and your heart get aligned just pause and you don't even need to continue the video.
You could just stop the video.
You could just stay with that take that into your day right so let this last video be an exploration for how grace is moving in your heart even through this prayer right how grace is moving in your heart and again let us follow Ignatius there where I find grace will I rest right there as I find grace I will rest so where are you gonna find grace today in this Examen prayer okay so we'll go through the steps and and you just pause as you and grace determined you want to pause and rest in that step all right so I'm just gonna go through them top speed you know and ideally this would be about 15 minutes the Examen you say between 12 and 15 minutes for the whole thing unless you have that moment where you just want to give in and give over and maybe you've got time to sit in it for longer okay so we remind ourselves we are forever and always in the presence of grace may call to mind that compassionate image that image of God or grace that speaks to you and immediately reminds you of how loved you are and let that come to mind and heart I may breathe into that once we have remembered grace we then turn to those gratitudes from the day the last 24 hours how has grace moved me how what are the gifts those blessings some of them blessings in disguise maybe they were hard lessons to learn at first but oh now I see it what are you grateful for when you find that gratitude and that grace just letting it move through you as I like to say letting the elevator drop from your head to your heart so it's my body remembering that gratitude not just the thought and that sets us up for the next step of the exam and because the gratitude to remind us of how loved we are right by grace we are loved and therefore we can then turn to that petition step and say okay grace I want to grow in love so finding that petition show me let me see my life through your eyes and having made that petition step that petition to grace we we know and trust that grace busts open the doors right to say okay I'm coming and then we with grace taking our hand review the previous 24 hours of our day looking for those ways that we said yes to grace and looking for those ways that we didn't both and this is a place where you really don't want to be rushed so I really encourage you to give yourself the time here to sit with that and once we've discovered those places that where we see grace has invited us and we said yes a kind word a moment or whatever we want to celebrate that with a thank you yes I get to dance and grace I want to drop that into my belly and give it back to grace oh yeah that's great and then we want to mark those other places perhaps we've seen some ways that we're not we've not been loving we've not said yes to the flow of grace we felt it tugging at our sleeve and we didn't respond in the way that we would from our healthy self and so we want to acknowledge that and that leads us to the forgiveness is and let go step so there's ways that we have not been loving we can offer those back with it I'm sorry with a let go so that we can grow in grace and once we've done that and that that may move us to want to sit with that for a few moments right so if that speaks to you maybe that's the place you want to rest it maybe something really struck you when there are tears and there's just a let go that wants to sit and move and release maybe something's been on your heart for a long time that wants to release all of that sets us up for the renewal step the fifth step which we looked at yesterday and this is I call to mind and heart one act of courage one simple clear step that I can take on to step further into grace in the next 24 hours and once we've committed to that renewal step maybe written it down or shared it with someone then we sit we conclude our exam and at the very end is we just sit once again trusting in the presence of grace in me through me around me and then I get to dance this dance and there we are let go of our formal exam in time and as we conclude our exam and together I just want to say that one invitation is to let any part of this resonate throughout your day this is really what the exam is about is I keep connecting my life with grace with my daily life and one way you can think about this prayer if it speaks to you is it's the Grand Central Station of your spiritual life it is the place through which all other practices whatever other practices you may have from vocal prayer to good action in your life and and times of meditation and silence you let them you can look at them all through the lens of the exam it's the hub through which everything passes and you can assess your life and move forward with grace thank you
