Socrates gave us the great axiom in his Apology 38a: "...the unexamined life is not worth living..." - and yet it seems to me that most of us live just such a life. I have been haphazard at best in critically reviewing my daily goings-on. I might take a stab at it when I celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but up until a couple of months ago, that was the only discipline I applied to such a task. That has changed. I was reading about St. Ignatius of Loyola and his Examen which he made a daily requirement of his priests, and I decided to try it. It has been life-changing on several levels. The Examen consists of 5 steps, and practitioners are encouraged to process through these once or better twice a day: 1/ recall that you are in the presence of God 2/ look at the day with gratitude 3/ ask for the guidance of the Spirit 4/ review the day, looking for places where God may have been communicating with you; begin with the morning (or when you last did this) up until where you are at this point in the day 5/ reconcile and resolve to make changes where necessary; speak to God openly about what you have reviewed. You may end with Lord’s Prayer. This process can take as few as 10-15 minutes, or much longer, depending on one’s availability. The greatest gift of this process for me, at least at this point, is to slow down my life – recognizing that every single day is a gift to be opened, and being grateful for this gift. I ask myself at night what I did with this gift – did I waste it or move forward with it. It used to be that life just went on, with my thinking about what I had to do in the coming week, or a project due in a month or two, or whatever. But now I have come to appreciate the gift of today, and to treat it with all of the awe and respect which it deserves. Ignatius was on to something here. See what you think.
[For a more complete explanatian of the Examen, go to: http://norprov.org/spirituality/ignatianprayer.htm]
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG ARE MINE ALONE AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF MY EMPLOYER.
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