REC News

The 31st of July marks the Feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola. This year St Ignatius was brought to mind on our Staff Spirituality Day as we looked at some of the great things that St Ignatius did in his lifetime and how we might follow in his footsteps.

St Ignatius is a saint I really admire because he looked for God in the everyday things that happened in his life. He saw God in all things and all people. I try to do that too, although I will admit that some days I’m not very successful. I guess what we need to be better attuned to are the ‘God moments’. This may mean a little bit more time being still to allow ourselves the opportunity to reflect on the good moments each day rather than concentrating on what went wrong.

St Ignatius asked his followers to pray the Examen daily and I think it’s a worthwhile practice to adopt in our own lives. I have included one version of it below, together with a little reflection from David Fleming.

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

God, send your Holy Spirit upon me.
God, let the Holy Spirit enlighten my mind and warm my heart that I may know where and how we have been together this day.

God, let me look at my day.
God, where have I felt your presence, seen your face, heard your word this day?
God, where have I ignored you, run from you, perhaps even rejected you this day?

God, let me be grateful and ask forgiveness.
God, I thank you for the times this day we have been together and worked together.
God, I am sorry for the ways that I have offended you by what I have done or what I did not do.

God, stay close.
God, I ask that you draw me ever closer to you this day and tomorrow.
God, you are the God of my life—thank you.            Amen

Sometimes our prayer can get formal and abstract. The Examen keeps our feet on the ground. This reflective, Spirit-led review of the day grounds our prayer in concrete reality. Because we are God’s sons and daughters living in a world that he loves and sustains, we can be assured that we can hear his voice in our lives in this world.

There is one final advantage to making a habit of the Daily Examen: We will never run out of things to pray about. Sometimes prayer gets dry. Sometimes we wonder what to say to God. The examen eliminates these problems. As long as we have twenty-four hours to look back on, we will have hundreds of things to talk to God about—and to thank him for.

(Excerpt from What is Ignatian Spirituality? by David L. Fleming, SJ)